Joe Scarborough on Mark Sanford Loss: Republican Party is Now a ‘Trumpist Cult’

As Morning Joe talked about Congressman Mark Sanford‘s defeat last night in the South Carolina primaries, Joe Scarborough called it the latest sign that the Republican Party has become completely subservient to President Donald Trump.

Even though Sanford maintained a conservative track record during his congressional career, the representative was torpedoed by Trump just hours before the election yesterday. Scarborough noted that Sanford has said a number of critical statements about Trump in the past, so the MSNBC host flat out asked “Why don’t we just say [the GOP] has devolved into a cult?”

“Primary voters in the Republican Party have devolved into a Trumpist cult,” he continued

Jon Heilemann agreed that Trump’s “cult of personality” has become the dominant motivator of the Republican base, and he also concluded that Sanford’s defeat shows why GOPers can’t speak against Trump for fear of losing their jobs.

“The fact is if you get on the wrong side of Donald Trump, his power over his base is significant enough that he can kill you, regardless of how conservative voting record is, regardless of your history in the Republican Party, regardless of your ideology, regardless of everything else. If he wants to put a target on your back, he can and will.”

This caused Scarborough to muse that the Republican Party no longer reflects traditional conservatism, so he wondered what will happen to people who still hold onto that kind of political thinking.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[Image via screengrab]

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