‘A Mess!’ Morning Joe Crew WRECKS ‘Cringey’ Trump-Free Republican Debate

Morning Joe stars took apart the second Trump-free Republican presidential primary debate, calling it “a mess” that was full of “cringey” moments and missing topics.

Seven qualifying candidates took the stage Wednesday night for the second GOP debate, this time airing on Fox Business Network and once again proceeding without the Republican frontrunner, ex-President Donald Trump. There was a lot of shouting.

On Thursday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski and their regular cast called the debate a cringey mess that skipped important topics. A taste:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: The debate last night. We’re going to get to it and play more the clips. But just overall-.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: A mess!

JOE SCARBOROUGH: I had one Republican leader and one contributor. One after another after another, just they were texting and calling, all saying the same thing. What a mess. What an embarrassment. What a disaster.

WILLIE GEIST: It was. It was a lot of what we just showed in that clip talking over each other, the moderators having lost control of things, some very cringey moments, awkward moments. Nikki Haley, if you wanted to pick somebody, she had several adult moments. But for the most part, you’re watching and thinking, wow, this is, as some people put it, the kids table where they’re all fighting for second place as Donald Trump sits comfortably at home. And you watch that, you watch it and you ask yourself, why would Donald Trump ever participate in that debate with the lead he has? Why would he, you know, step into that fight?

…

JONATHAN LEMIRE: Yeah. Last night it was chaotic, it was messy, it was sloppy. A lot of major topics were not addressed. Vivek Ramaswamy, unknowingly or not, had the line of the night where he thanked someone for speaking while he was interrupting because that’s what it was, because everyone was just shouting at the other. And it was hard at times even just to hear what anyone was saying last night. And certainly there was no real breakthrough moment. There were some cringing moments and some pretty bad one liners we can get to later.

Watch above via MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!