Donald Trump is gambling that he can keep bashing Fox News, and he could lose the 2024 election for it, “Morning Joe” pundits said Monday. (Watch the video below.)
Host Joe Scarborough set the table by noting Trump’s criticisms of the network he once adored in Sunday rants on Truth Social.
Fuming over a Wall Street Journal poll showing that 49% of registered voters think he isn’t mentally fit for the job, Trump called the Journal and Fox News “damaged goods” and “MORONS!!!” while challenging the outlets’ overlords, the Murdoch family, to a mental acuity test.
He also noted Fox News’ earlier push in support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the network’s $787.5 million payout to settle its Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit.
Scarborough said that “a guy who wants to be the Republican nominee who is trashing Fox News every day” indicates the degree of splintering in the Republican Party.
“It doesn’t bode well for next year,” he said.
Fellow MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire dug deeper.
“Trump is making the bet that he is bigger than Fox, that he doesn’t need Fox,” Lemire said. “That is a risky bet to make.”
Lemire said Trump’s propensity to go “scorched earth” against any dissenting view on Fox News is the kind of loyalty a dictator expects of state-run media.
Given the tight polling of a possible 2024 rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden, neither has a margin of error, he noted.
“He would need every single vote he can,” Lemire said of Trump. “If he is turning off some Republicans, if he doesn’t get the full-throated endorsement of Fox News next time around, that could, to your point, Joe, absolutely come back and hurt him.”
Guest Al Sharpton also questioned the wisdom of Trump picking fights with outlets that helped to create his victorious candidacy in 2016 and how easily he is incited “into childish games.”