What To Know
- Senator Tim Scott criticized the hosts of Morning Joe after they prayed for him on air, following his fiery speech at the GOP midterm convention.
- Scott accused Morning Joe of promoting lies and hiding from the truth.
- Morning Joe hosts, including Joe Scarborough and Rev. Al Sharpton, expressed concern for Scott’s rhetoric and behavior, with Sharpton leading a group prayer and questioning Scott’s motivations and mental state.
U.S. Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, wasn’t amused to be the subject of a Morning Joe prayer on Thursday, following his speech at the GOP midterm convention in Texas the night before.
“At the end of the day, now we know why Joe’s ratings are so darn low,” the senator said on Fox News’ Saturday in America today, per Mediaite. “They will hide from the truth, and they will publicly endorse a lie.”
(MS NOW said in a press release in April that Morning Joe was coming off its most-watched quarter since Q4 2024 and topped CNN in both total viewers and the key demo for the quarter to remain the top cable news morning program in Washington, D.C.)
Scott then echoed one of his eyebrow-raising lines from his speech in Dallas on Wednesday, saying, “This is a group of Democrats, the most dangerous, radical and weird group of Democrats who literally say there are six genders, and God is nonbinary. If you don’t want to stand up and fight for the soul of this country, your wood is wet. It’s that simple.”
During his speech, Scott claimed the Democratic midterm slate had “the most dangerous, radical, and, frankly, weird Democratic candidates in American history,” according to The Independent. He also targeted U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas, for previously claiming that God is nonbinary. (Talarico has since walked back those comments, per ABC News.)
Scott then pantomimed his heart being ripped from his body. “The Democrats’ extreme candidates won’t rip that heart out of our chests,” he said. “They hate our culture. They hate what it means to be American. Hear me, Dallas. Not! On! Our! Watch! We will not back down. We will not grow weary.”
On his MS NOW show the following morning, Morning Joe cohost Joe Scarborough expressed concern for Scott. “That was really weird,” he said. “I thought for a moment there, ‘You need some anti-seizure medication.’ I was concerned, and the whole ripping the heart out of the chest and ‘Democrats hate America and American culture.’ No, no, they don’t, but they are genuinely worried about you, Tim. Really worried about you, Tim.”
Rev. Al Sharpton, a guest on Morning Joe, led the panel in a group prayer for Scott. “Tim Scott needs an intersection. He needs an interception and intersection,” he said. “I am actually praying, too. To go that far, I mean, I understand you have to kiss the ring, I understand that you bowed to [President Donald] Trump, but the way he really went off the chain, you’ve got to really wonder about where he is in his head. … I’ve never seen anything like that in national politics. And to play to Trump like that, you would only do that if you were in fear, facing a firing squad or something…”
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
