Scarborough on AHCA: ‘Billionaire’ Trump and ‘Middle-Aged,’ ‘White Guys’ Gutted Health Care

On Friday’s edition of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Joe Scarborough said the House Republicans and President Donald Trump’s gathering after the House passed the revised version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) looked like a bunch of “middle-aged and older white guys,” celebrating gutting health care to give the richest 1% tax breaks.

Scarborough said, “A lot of the senators, certainly are skeptical, they certainly aren’t going to come close to a bill that’s been framed already in the public as taking health care away from 24 million Americans, many of them the most important swing voters in elections that are coming up in 2018. If morality doesn’t matter to them, maybe just puerile politics should. 24 million people losing their healthcare insurance, according to the message that’s been sent out to Americans. And on top of that Mika, all of the money saved by taking away those health benefits, all go to the richest Americans in tax cuts. That is not, it seems to me, something to be celebrating in the Rose Garden, but I haven’t understood this president and, quite frankly, this party in some time.”

Referencing a picture of yesterday’s White House event, Scarborough added, “I want you to look at this picture of a billionaire, surrounded by a lot of millionaires. They’re all middle-aged and older white guys, and they are all going to be facing constituents next year, who are going to tell them stories about how they voted to gut their health care to give the richest 1% in their district tax breaks. Now…I know some of my Republican friends will say, ‘Gee, Joe, you’re being tough on your party.’ I’m not being tough. This is simple. [House Minority Leader Representative] Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was right yesterday, this is going to glow on them for a long time to come.”

After fellow co-host Willie Geist compared the ceremony to a golf course’s ribbon-cutting, Scarborough added, “Willie, it’s a country club with restrictive membership. Obviously, you have to be white and a male to be there.”