Republicans erupted over the weekend after former President Barack Obama made a quip about the decor of the Cheesecake Factory, which is infamously outlandish. But “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough called it the kind of “desperate” outrage that comes from Republicans who know that they’re losing.
Obama’s joke was that President Donald Trump cares more about redocrating the White House than about issues that matter to most Americans. He said that Trump has made the White House look so outlandish that it made Saddam Hussein’s palaces look like a Cheesecake Factory.
Republicans attempted to turn that into Obama making an elitist knock on people who go to the Cheesecake Factory when Obama was clearly making a knock on Trump’s gold-plated elitism.
Obama’s line sent Scarborough into hysterical giggles.
“And that’s the line,” said Jonathan Lemire. “Saddam Hussein opening a Cheesecake Factory is the line of the campaign. And it shows. Frankly, I thought the reaction to that line showcased such Republican desperation. There were bad-faith attacks saying, oh, well, the former president is out of touch. Americans love the Cheesecake Factory!”
The panel at the table cracked up with laughter.
“How dare he!” Lemire said, imitating the manufactured outrage. “Everywhere. That was the talking point. Can you believe?”
“How stupid,” Scarborough said. “First of all, how stupid the reaction is and how stupid they think Americans are. Every time Donald Trump opens his mouth. Now, especially in this end run, they say such unbelievably stupid things that suggest that they think all Americans are dumb. Stupid. It’s embarrassing. I’m embarrassed for them.”
“There’s no argument to be made on the merits, so therefore they resort to something like that,” Lemire said.
The group then mocked Obama’s line about Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“How much time do you think this Defense secretary spends looking at himself in the mirror in the morning?” asked Obama with a grin. Hegseth has spent the past two years focusing on making soldiers more manly, ensuring they have enough testosterone and that they look the part.
The conversation turned to Obama’s comments in Ohio, in which he tied Trump and Vice President JD Vance to supporting the infamous ad Vivek Ramaswamy ran, in which Democratic opponent Amy Acton’s mother called her a liar. Acton and her brother accused their stepfather of abuse, and the man was formally indicted, with the children being taken away from the mother.
Lemire said the ad has been so horrific to run that it has had ripple effects.
Bloomberg’s David Drucker said that he spoke to many Republicans over the weekend there who were squeamish about Ramaswamy to begin with. That has created a permission structure to oppose not only him but also Sen. Jon Husted as he runs for his first reelection against former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D).
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