Every Republican should be scared out of wits’: Morning Joe warns move will haunt GOP

Joe Scarborough used his MSNBC show to give viewers a reminder of political history while warning Republicans that they should be deeply concerned about Jimmy Kimmel’s sudden suspension. Kimmel, one of the most prominent late-night hosts, was placed on indefinite leave after the Federal Communications Commission, led by Chairman Brendan Carr, threatened to go after broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates if they continued airing his program. Carr argued that Kimmel’s jokes about conservative activist Charlie Kirk had crossed the line. ABC and Disney, under pressure, pulled Kimmel off the air.

Scarborough said this kind of government pressure is not just about one comedian but about setting a precedent that could easily backfire. He explained that political power in the United States has always shifted back and forth, and no party stays in charge forever, no matter how much they think they will. To illustrate his point, he revisited history. After George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004, Republican strategist Karl Rove spoke about building a “permanent Republican majority.” Just two years later, Democrats took the House of Representatives under Nancy Pelosi, and two years after that, Barack Obama won the presidency.

Even after Republicans came roaring back with the Tea Party movement in the 2010 midterms, Obama still won re-election in 2012. Scarborough also looked further back, pointing out that Republicans were crushed in the 1964 election with Barry Goldwater, yet that defeat gave way to Ronald Reagan’s rise and the beginning of the modern conservative movement. The cycle has always been one of ebb and flow.

Scarborough warned that Republicans supporting the Trump administration’s moves against Kimmel should remember that they won’t hold power indefinitely. If today’s FCC can lean on networks to silence a comedian, a future Democratic administration could use the exact same tools against conservative voices. He argued that Republicans are making a mistake by normalizing this kind of action, because the precedent will not disappear once Trump and his allies are out of office. Instead, it will remain available for the other side to use, and when that happens, he predicted, conservatives will “melt down.”