Morning Joe Debates The Rock For President in 2020: ‘A Formidable, Possible Candidate’
With Hollywood celebrity Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson fueling speculation around his rumored interest in running for president, Morning Joe debated the possibility of The Rock’s presidential run, as host Joe Scarborough tried to bring GOP strategist Steve Schmidt back to reality.
Schmidt, best known for serving as John McCain‘s campaign manager in 2008, was all in on The Rock 2020, saying the quality of his character make him a “formidable” opponent to President Donald Trump — a man even many of his supporters would say is in that department.
“If Dwayne Johnson wanted to run for office in this country he would be a serious candidate,” argued Schmidt. “The next president will always have oppositional virtues to the last president, and so when you look at Dwayne Johnson, there is an element to his personality of genuine kindness, interest, he’s a nice person who takes time with every fan.”
Schmidt continued: “He smart, he’s articulate, he understands that there are things he doesn’t know and seems interested in learning them. He has a type of humility that’s profoundly oppositional to Donald Trump. So I look at Dwayne Johnson as a celebrity, I don’t look at him as a celebrity. I look at Dwayne Johnson as someone who possesses qualities of character that are quite oppositional to the incumbent president that makes him a formidable possible candidate.”
However, Scarborough is not on Johnson bandwagon just yet, pushing back on Schmidt’s points by diving into a convoluted analogy in which he compared Trump to a “nasty lawn boy” inexperienced in brain surgery and The Rock to a “nice” lawn boy who also lacks medical experience — his point being, both are not political professionals.
“I mean, the rock doesn’t know any more about government than Donald Trump, and yet, we’re talking about The Rock,” said the congressman-turned-pundit. “Again, are we doomed to continue electing presidents that have no idea how to make the government work?
As for Johnson’s actual political aspirations, he recently told Rolling Stone magazine that his undecided plans to run for office are a long ways off — meaning, he almost certainly will not be running against Trump. However, he did voice interest in becoming more politically involved — with an eye on the future — and even officially endorsing a presidential candidate in 2020.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
[images via screengrab]
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