MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough scolded his viewers who are “too stupid” to understand that the anti-Israel protests erupting on college campuses could reelect former President Donald Trump.
An encampment at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) led to an intense clash between law enforcement and protesters in the early hours of Thursday morning after officers deployed stun grenades to break up the barricades. This is the latest of several protests sparking on campuses across the U.S. as pro-Palestinian groups have attempted to “occupy” colleges and universities in order to force them to “divest” any support for Israel.
Scarborough compared these protests to the anti-Vietnam protesters’ occupation of campuses in 1968, warning that those protests helped elect former President Richard Nixon.
“I can tell you the riots on college campuses, the riots at the Chicago convention in ’68, all of those things moved my family from being Democrats their entire life to being Republicans,” Scarborough said Thursday. “I remember, I was young, and I remember my parents asking what in the world is going on in this country and of course, you know, they were raised in the Great Depression in rural Georgia. Kind of hard for them to hear rich kids on [the] campus of Harvard or taking over the campuses of Columbia. And by the way, if you’re offended by this, please, I’m trying to help you. I don’t want Donald Trump to get elected, alright? I’m trying to help you. If you’re too stupid to figure that out, you can change to another channel because we’re sorting through this as a country and this is not helping. This is not helping the people of Gaza and this is not helping those of us who want to fight fascism in America.”
Scarborough also argued former President Ronald Reagan rose to popularity in the election of 1980 over opposition to violence. (RELATED: ‘Trying To Elect Donald Trump’: Alyssa Farah Griffin Sounds Alarm On Anti-Israel Protests Ahead Of 2024 Election)
President Joe Biden holds a dismal approval rating of 28% and a 78% disapproval rate on his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS. Trump’s approval trounced Biden in the poll by 49% to 43%, and 55% of the surveyed participants viewed Trump’s presidency as a success. More than half of participants, 61%, view Biden’s presidency as a failure, while 39% said it is a success.
Democratic lawmakers are becoming increasingly concerned about the protests harming their chances in the 2024 election. Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois said a ceasefire in Gaza would be “very helpful” for Democrats and another House Democrat said it will get “worse” for the party as the protests continue.