Joe Scarborough Calls Out Glenn Youngkin For Defending Trump’s ‘Fascist’ Threats To Political Opponents: ‘Everybody Knows You’re Lying!’

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough called out Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin for “lying” in his defense of former President Donald Trump’s threats to deploy the military to “go after” his “political opponents,” a move the MSNBC host said was straight out of the “fascist playbook.”

At a rally over the weekend in Colorado, Trump suggested using the military against “the enemy within” – who he described as “radical left lunatics” like Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), who led the impeachment proceedings against Trump. Trump called the leftists “a bigger threat than China and Russia.”

On Tuesday’s Morning Joe , however, Scarborough took aim at Youngkin for defending the remarks in a heated interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Monday . Throughout the segment, as Tapper quoted Trump’s words back, Youngkin denied they were threats against American citizens and claimed the Republican nominee was talking about managing immigration. Tapper persisted, citing Trump’s naming of Schiff, but the governor continued to deny the idea.

Rolling back the tape, Scarborough branded Youngkin one of many “Trump Apologists” in the Republican Party who are “ashamed to vote for Donald Trump but are lying about Donald Trump.”

What’s so fascinating is, I would say, normally, it’s not really what Donald Trump said, except for the fact that what he is talking about is right out of the fascist playbook, where you use the military to go after your political opponents.

…All these Trump apologists right now or people who are ashamed to vote for Donald Trump but are lying about Donald Trump, saying, ‘Oh, we got through four years without him doing anything.’ Well, we didn’t, actually. We didn’t get through January 6th. Also, again, for those that call themselves proud Reagan supporters or 41 supporters or whoever you’ve supported in the past, this is a guy that pressured his attorney general publicly and privately.

I’m sorry, what’s in it for Glenn Youngkin? I’ve never understood what was in it for him. Why would he do that? Why have Republicans been doing this for nine years? Especially when you get to the point where you’re defending somebody… Glenn Youngkin is defending the use of the army and the National Guard against Democrats, against Donald Trump’s political opponents. That’s where we are. That’s where America is. That’s where the Republican party is. Three weeks from, can I say it now? The election of our lifetime.

Scarborough continued lambasting the Republican Party for defending Trump’s proposal to issue tariffs on imports as a fix for the economy and its pushback on expert economists’ criticism of the idea. He slammed Trump’s refusal to engage in a second debate and release his medical records before returning to the Republican nominee’s comments on the military.

And while we’re talking about just the latest outrage that he said on Sunday… I say outrage. I don’t know if it is catastrophizing if somebody out and out says: “We should be like fascists. We should use the military against our political opponents.” That’s what he said, Glenn Youngkin. No need to lie anymore. Everyone knows it’s a lie.

The host concluded: “Continuing to lie over and over again. It’s a pretty clear-cut decision if you’re a Republican. If you’re conservative, an American. Yet the polls say it is pretty close. We’ll see.”

Watch above on MSNBC.