Capping off what has been an exceptional week and a half of crazy shit, Joe Scarborough said that, earlier in the campaign, Trump repeatedly asked a nuclear weapons expert why, if we have nuclear weapons, we don’t use one.
Watch: What are some major concerns about Trump's handling of national security? Hayden and #morningjoe weigh in. https://t.co/FyFoSmJlJI
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 3, 2016
Here is the transcript of the exchange, which, with its repetition of three times, has a nice biblical tint:
Joe Scarborough: Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump, and three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times he asked, at one point, “If we have them, why can’t we use them?” That’s one of the reasons he just doesn’t have foreign policy experts around him.
Mike Barnicle: Trump, Trump asked three times?
Joe Scarborough: Three times, in an hour briefing, why can’t we use nuclear weapons.
Scarborough is putting the emphasis on three times and not the insane “Why don’t we just nuke everyone?” question, but that’s where the emphasis should be. Everyone knows you have nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of not using them and Trump not knowing that—and acting like a crazed Facebook uncle in a meeting with a foreign policy expert—suggests he’s even less knowledgeable than many assume. Three months ago, Trump suggested that nuking ISIS would be a possibility, despite the fact that it would result in enormous and disproportionate civilian casualties. It appears that he was being serious, not just feeding catnip to his rabid base.
In any case, the Goldwater parallels are getting out of control now.