“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough argues Democrats must publicly reject the Democratic Socialists of America or face President Donald Trump defining the party for them.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Democrats, Democrats, Democrats. Let those with ears hear. Maya Angelou said when somebody shows you who they are believe them the first time people know themselves much better than you do and well what’s true of people is also true of political parties and as you just saw the national co-chair of the DSA went on television and showed us exactly who she is and what her party believes. Abolish the U.S. Senate, the presidency as we know it, the Supreme Court as we know it. True. Abolish ICE. Absolutely. Open the borders, defund the Pentagon, empty the prisons, have the government seize private companies. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah absolutely. All questions answered with complete conviction and all those responses completely disqualifying for a party likes to tell people they’re really just about health care and tax reform. I have no problem with debate. Barack Obama might say that a party that stops debating the big issues with itself stops growing but there’s a difference between pushing your party to be better and asking it to abandon every single thing that makes it worth belonging to in 2026. Remember how the Democrats pushed back against the lawlessness of January 6th and the attempt to overthrow the election, how they rose up and fought back against Americans and immigrants being gunned down in American streets and they did it to defend the basic American values and the Constitution. And as far as defense goes, JFK promised America would pay any price, bear any burden to assure the survival and the success of liberty. LBJ passed the most sweeping civil rights legislation in history. That’s a party worth fighting for. Bill Clinton balanced the budget four years in a row. Nobody’s done that in over a hundred years. And Barack Obama, he created the Affordable Care Act and expanded health care coverage to record levels. You know he added 20 million Americans to the insured rolls. And Joe Biden fought back against the corrupt anti-democracy forces that still infect Donald Trump’s Republican Party. But being that party defends democracy also demands condemning a party that calls to abolish the US Senate, the House, the presidency and the Supreme Court. Wants to release murderers and rapists from jail. I mean one candidate was asked by the New York Times three times, do you support letting murderers out of jail? She wouldn’t even answer. A party that zeroes out spending on defending America’s borders, defending America overseas, defending America at home, takes police officers out of our children’s schools and off our streets and erases America’s borders? Come on. Democrats have always believed you can love your country while pushing it toward being that more perfect union. And you can do that without wanting to burn it to the ground. If Democrats want to make America more affordable, more fair and more free, and I think they do, they better speak truth to its most extreme base. Are they going to let a small faction of radicals drive more people toward Donald Trump? Because Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, every other Democrat in Washington DC, make no mistake of it, if you don’t define your party today, Donald Trump will be sure to define it in November. And Jim Bandai, you’ve written about this. You talked about how Donald Trump took over the Republican Party in six steps. You’re also looking at what the most radical elements of the DSA are doing to the Democratic Party. Talk about that.

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