Joe Scarborough blasts Hillary Clinton: “She’s a robot … while people are getting their heads carved off”

The "Morning Joe" host and former GOP congressman says Clinton's phoniness is what Americans hate about politics

Published September 15, 2014 2:14PM (EDT)

Joe Scarborough                 (NBC News)
Joe Scarborough (NBC News)

Kicking off the week with a good, old fashioned, incoherent anti-Clinton rant, former GOP congressman and longtime MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough tore into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday for her weekend appearance in Iowa, describing her performance as phony and robotic at a time when the bad economy and the exploits of Islamic terrorists have Americans pining for the comfort of an authentic, human overlord. Or something.

"What Hillary Clinton has done over the past year or so is why Americans hate politics," Scarborough complained, referring to Clinton's shadow 2016 presidential campaign, which has not yet been formally announced but is increasingly seen by political savants as effectively begun.

"You play it safe. You then write a book. You say absolutely nothing. You go around on a glorified book tour where you say absolutely nothing. You want people to ask you to run for President so you can say 'we're not running for President, we don't know yet,'" Scarborough continued.

"Then you go to these stupid events," Scarborough said, alluding to Clinton's recent appearance alongside Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin (as well as her husband, former President Bill Clinton) in Iowa. "I mean, you're either running or you're not running!" Scarborough added, with obvious exasperation.

All of it, Scarborough said, was more evidence that, at least as a candidate (declared or otherwise) Clinton provides "no creativity, no spontaneity, nothing from the heart."

"This," Scarborough went on, "is Hillary Clinton's problem for people that know her and like her — like I know her and like her. She puts on that political hat and then she's a robot; and she goes through the motions, she doesn't ever reveal herself, she didn't do it against Barack Obama, that's why she lost in 2008. And it wasn't until her back was against the wall that she had to stop acting like a robot on the campaign trail and start acting like herself that she started winning."

"This is not a game," Scarborough continued, as he assailed Clinton for not putting on a more convincing and relatable performance. "This is not some little chess match. This is something that actually matters."

Ultimately, Scarborough concluded, Clinton would have to be more upfront and authentic with her presidential ambitions, because the present state of the world is too dire for the former first lady to maintain the traditional would-be presidential candidate's fake modesty and phony remove from the politics of the day."You know, if you want to run, run," Scarborough said. "Stop playing your stupid political games, because more people are out of work — and if they do have jobs, they have two or three crappy jobs."

"The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, terrorists are carving heads off of people who are trying to help the Middle East," Scarborough added, seamlessly transitioning into /r/rant-mode, "and you're sitting around, playing games, rubbing your hands together like you're Hamlet on whether you're going to run or not."

You can watch Scarborough slam Hillary Clinton for acting like just another one of those clowns in Congress below, via MSNBC:


By Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a former Salon staff writer.

MORE FROM Elias Isquith