‘Very Funny, Ha Ha Ha’: Things Get Tense As Joe Scarborough and John Heilemann Spar Over Nikki Haley’s Trump Vote

Former presidential candidate Nikki Haley announced on Wednesday that she was voting for former President Donald Trump, citing dubious reasons why he was a better choice than President Joe Biden. Those dubious reasons sent MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough into a rant on Thursday, and guest John Heilemann just wanted to lighten things up a bit. But Joe wasn’t quite having it.

Scarborough, with increasing volume (and a swear word!), frustratedly argued that the points brought up by Haley — the economy, national debt, and bowing to foreign dictators — were Trump’s weakest, and she lied about all of them:

This is how people spread disinformation and lies and get away with it, where you just let shit keep going. Sometimes you need to stop things and just explain how big her lies were there. She lied about the economy. She lied about debt. Just look, just look at the numbers. She lied through her teeth about debt, and she lied about Donald Trump holding our enemies accountable when he actually praises our enemies and sends love letters to them and talk, talks about how brilliant they are, because they can hold down millions and millions of their countrymen and women.

Once he was done, he turned to Heilemann, who tried cutting the tension:

Scarborough: I’ll let you go from there. I’m just, seriously, I’m not shocked at the endorsement. I am shocked that that she would sink so low, so fast and just lie about the facts as badly as she did.

Heilemann: Morning, Joe. How are ya? It seems like the–

Scarborough: I’m doing well. How are you doing?

Heilemann: The Rudy Coffee is flowing.

Scarborough: No, no I mean, if you’re not shocked by that, John, I know it’s very funny, ha ha ha. But if you’re not shocked by her lying through her teeth that way… Like she could have picked three or four other issues. She could have talked about Afghanistan. She could have talked about inflation. She could have talked about two or three — the cost of gasoline. But she picks these three things where she, she actually picks, Donald Trump on policy, his weakest points, and then lied to the American people about it. So yeah. Yeah. I’m not laughing about that.

Heilemann: I’m not laughing either. I was just saying you’re fired up. That was all I was, that was my only comment about the Rudy Coffee.

Scarborough: I’m very happy and calm.

Heilemann: Good!

Watch the video above via MSNBC.