‘Don’t Try to be Fat Elvis’: Joe Scarborough Mocks Trump ‘Knock Off’ Ron DeSantis and His Campaign Failure

Joe Scarborough went with a ham-fisted cultural metaphor as he ridiculed Ron DeSantis’ failure to pull himself out of Donald Trump’s shadow before ending his presidential run.

Scarborough led Morning Joe on Monday as they talked about the Florida governor suspending his campaign after a crushing defeat in Iowa and grim prospects in New Hampshire. The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes got the ball rolling as he said DeSantis’ political obituary was “almost too easy to write.”

He was a bad candidate. He had a lousy message, and a terrible campaign. But maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference because this says so much about the Republican Party as well. He calculated if he moved to the right of Donald Trump on the cultural issues, that somehow, he could be Trumpism without Trump. But the Republican base wanted Trump. They wanted the show. They weren’t interested in the legislation, in the policies, whether or not he was going to be punching Disney in the face. They wanted the real thing.

When Ron DeSantis and the others decided they were not actually going to run against Donald Trump, but defend him, rationalize him, provide cover for his various indictments and crimes and lies and sedition, et cetera, it pretty much guaranteed that Republicans were going to go, ‘If we could have the fake thing, why not go with the real thing?’ But Ron DeSantis was always, I think, overhyped because he was never ready for primetime. He was never going to scale up. You cannot run if you’re not willing to run against the guy you’re running against, which seems kinda basic.

Scarborough strongly agreed on the point that DeSantis tried to run as a Trump alternative even though the former president continues to dominate the MAGA lane. This prompted the Morning Joe to describe DeSantis as an Elvis Presley impersonator trying hopelessly to compete with the real thing for attention.

Here you had fat Elvis, 77, and you had Ron Desantis saying ‘I’m gonna go to Vegas, and I’m going to fill that lane.’ Why?

If that lane is already filled, then do The Beatles. You can’t do The Beatles, do Dylan, be 5th Dimension. Be anybody, but don’t try to be fat Elvis! They got that on the strip! They got a lot of it, right!? You’re never going to get people.

If somebody has followed Elvis since ’57, they’re not going to drive to Vegas in ’77 and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to go see the fat Elvis imitator.’ No! They’re going to see Elvis! They’re going to get the sweaty, fat guy throwing his scarves into the crowd, and people think, like, I’m joking. No! This is a perfect analogy! Who in the hell is going to go see a knock-off of Donald Trump in 2024?

Scarborough continued to drive the point that “there is such a strong, powerful conservative message to be given to America right now,” and DeSantis couldn’t give it because he was trying to win unobtainable votes.

“Give them a fresh face,” John Heilemann agreed before picking up Scarborough’s metaphor to say “Fat Elvis has cornered the market on fat Elvis fans, and there is no point in trying to be a fake fat Elvis.”

Watch above via MSNBC.