Joe Scarborough Walks Off MSNBC's "Race To The White House" After Exchange With Rachel Maddow

Update from MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines to Huffington Post:
"Joe didn't walk off. He chose not to participate in the final couple of minutes of the discussion because he felt the conversation didn't fit his role as a political analyst."

Previously:
Did Joe Scarborough walk out of David Gregory's show "Race to the White House" Thursday night on MSNBC? It seems that way by the video below. Joe was a panelist on the show along with Air America's Rachel Maddow, CNBC's John Harwood and former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford, Jr.

The panel was discussing the effect of Sen. Obama's personal and professional relationships on his campaign when Rachel and Joe disagreed. Joe started to challenge Rachel's argument that relationships only become an issue when a political opponent makes them an issue, but she cut him off, "Let me make my point and then you can dismiss me." She then finished with an example of a McCain campaign co-chair in Florida's bathroom activities.

After a commercial break, Joe prefaced his rebuttal to Rachel's point by saying "I don't engage in Crossfire-type debates and certainly I don't want to talk about what people do in bathrooms." When he finished speaking, and after David Gregory had shut Joe vs. Rachel down, John Harrow came on camera. Then, viewers can hear Joe taking off his microphone (2:47 into the below video). When the panel picture came back, no Joe.

Watch Rachel and Joe make their points, hear Joe unplug, and then (after a jump) see the panel after Joe has gone:

Pictures of before and after:

Comments

[wu]

Joe is arrogant, sometimes he is charming, funny and even insightful, but he is always full of his own self importance. Not a comfortable thing to have to witness as you try to access what is going on in the world.

[fedupwiththemedia]

joe is arrogant and childish if he would grow up a little he might be tolerable

[helloworld2008]

Looks like Joe didn't like them discussing McCain's top campaign guy getting arrested for soliciting SEX in a PUBLIC RESTROOM!!!!

McCain showed bad judgment and questionable morals in selecting a public-restroom-sex-guy to run his campaign in Florida.

[lenoirlady]

Oh dear Lord! Where have I been? Had not heard that.

[hmmmmm]

Do you suppose Mark Foley suggest this guy to McCain?

[americanwomaninpa]

Pretty soon there won't be anyone left on MSNBC with Class. They are nothing more than a joke! They can't compete anymore.

[TERRYKEITH4]

I agree. They need to do something different with that time slot. And that Brezinski chick is real tired

[liberaltarian67]

I usually side with Maddow, as I myself consider myself pretty liberal, but I must say I applaud Scarborough for not engaging in the banter that Maddow thinks is political discourse.

Shows like RFTWH are a microcosm for everything that is wrong with the current state of American politics. Everything is not black and white. Have a civil conversation about it. Maddow clearly wasn't capable of doing it. What they were arguing about was hardly even a bipartisan issue, she just went off regarding something that she was completely off base in her analysis.

Scarborough's statement "I don't engage in Crossfire-type debates and certainly I don't want to talk about what people do in bathrooms" couldn't have been more fitting. People like Maddow have an arrogance about them that is ruining America's perception of the left. If we ever want to have a democrat in the white house we need to stop with this condescension towards the right and have some intelligent discourse.

[hmmmmm]

if he doesn't want crossfire style debate, then he shouldn't have interrupted Rachel.

[BlackWidowPilot]

" People like Maddow have an arrogance about them that is ruining America's perception of the left. If we ever want to have a democrat in the white house we need to stop with this condescension towards the right and have some intelligent discourse."

What an utter canard. You want an intelligent discourse with the "party of family values?" Better look at their track record first:

http://www.armchairsubversive.org

"Family values like the locals in THE HILLS HAVE EYES.

Better just ignore the actual track record of the "Gang of Pedophiles" these past seven and a half years from Hell, including but not limited to launching a war for oil and empire based upon over 900+ documented lies about WMDs and spurious claims of connections between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, defective body armour ("Support our troops!"), unarmoured humvees ("Bring it on!"), VA benefits denied to deserving vets as na apparent matter of official policy ("Mission accomplished!"), no-bid contracts, billions in taxpayer *cash* missing and unaccounted for, several hundred thousand weapons missing and unaccounted for, mercenaries, Abu Ghraib, Hurricane Katrina ("Heckuvajob Brownie"), the foreclosure epidemic, corruption unrestrained and without such egregious precedent that Boss Tweed would blush with shame.

END PART I

[BlackWidowPilot]

PART II

This independent voter has been all too aware of the Bush family and its skullduggery starting with Prescott Bush's treason during WW2, and it is plainly evident that his progeny have continued his cynical boundless avarice and moral bankruptcy.

To have a discourse with the Busheviks and their "Repedophile" fellow travelers at this point in America's history is IMHO a concept that is utterly, irredeemably intellectually bankrupt and morally reprehensible.

Sheep would do better to open a discourse with rabid, starving wolves, than for honest Americans to waste any more time trying to reason with the spiritual and moral inheritors of Caligula, Boss Tweed, and Idi Amin.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[veritasexmachina]

When you COVER-UP & Get AWAY with MURDER
Like "mornin-jo" has you think you can do Anything!!!!!!!
SEE: Lori Klausutis

[OldBlackVet]

Someone finally had enough gut shut down that right wing blather that he is always spouting on Morning Joe and he couldn't take it. Good Job Joe.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Thank you for your service to our country.

"Joey Scarface" Scarborough is just another hack of the corporate far right. He wouldn't know the truth if it came up and bit him on the nose, and IMHO he's fine with that as long as he keeps getting paid to be just another corporate presstitute.

Rachel Maddow is clearly a patriot, and may she keep slam-dunking this pathetic corporate rat every chance she gets!

Enough of these "Repedophiles" and their corporate press shills!

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[ehemingway]

Yikes! What's wrong with some of you? You're all drinking the wrong coffee. Morning Joe wakes me up with a chuckle. I get a big kick out of Joe's show, especially when he doesn't take himself too seriously, which is most often in the morning. In case you haven't noticed, Joe Scarborough has two personalities, one for his morning brew, when he's talking with friendly cohorts. The other brew is probably double Expressos, for afternoon and evening shows where you see him looking stiff and sounding more like the right winger from Pensacola. It doesn't excuse him walking off set.

But when you listen to Joe, carefully and without prejudice, you hear a super-intelligent, highly educated, politically astute and loving, yes loving individual who feels things deeply. Mika plays too much to the camera. But if I looked like Mika I would too. She is very capable and when they go at each other they are like Tracy and Hepburn in one of those old movies. The show has a wide variety of guests from both political parties and they all speak their minds. Loosen up and enjoy and you might find yourself learning and liking.

[BlackWidowPilot]

I have listened to Scarborough without prejudice and very carefully. All I've heard repeatedly from this corporate presstitute is utter garbage, straw man arguments, red herrings, intellectual dishonesty, and moral bankruptcy.

Scarborough is simply another willing shill of the corporate press paid to champion the "Gang of Pedophiles" and their war for oil and empire launched and sustained by over 900+ *documented* lies about WMDs and spurious claims of connections between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.

And I my coffee is just fine. How's that Kool-aid tasting these days?

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Opus007]

Totally agree Leland

[kObey]

I guess one of the biggest lefties was drinking the cool-aid Leland ,Hillary Clinton and alot of you lefties were gulping it down, I remember DEMS voting to go to war and dont tell me they didnt know what they were voting for everyone knew even Hussian Obama would have voted for it if he had too. Its easy for him to tell you loons now but he's voted for funds for the war every single time

[Chavez08]

All the MSM old-guard personalities are on the way out. MSNBC picked up Scarborough and, at first, he was a pathetic clone of Oreilly and now that Fox News style punditry is no longer cool, the right-wing spinsters are being rushed out of NBC faster than Donahue was when the Reichstag burned again.

[Cherlesq]

OMG 46 pages of comments. Are ya reading Joe? Do you get it now? Adios, buddy.

[cla62]

Air America hosts have that effect on many of their more normal guests that they interview. Oh that's right, nobody normal does interview on Air America. Do they still even exist?

[RichardSau]

Joe .. is that you?

[BlackWidowPilot]

Spoken like a true believer Bushevik, "(no)cla(ss)62. Scarborough is right down there in the credibility cesspit with Bill O'Liar and Rush "RXaddict" Limbaugh and all the rest of the quack right corporate press pundits on squawk radio and TV.

Wanna talk adbou issues? Let's start with the actual performance record of your vaunted "party of family values" which your heroes Scarface Scarborough and Limbaugh so slavishly champion:

http://www.armchairsubversive.org

"Family values" worthy of Caligula or the locals in THE HILLS HAVE EYES.

Your hero Joey Scarface ran like a scared bunny rabbit 'cause big, bad ole' Rachel Maddow didn't let him get away with another red herring argument, and you damn well know it. Wimps like Scarborough can't handle it when a mere *woman* tells them like it is.

Scarborough is a *little man* like his heroes Chimpy McFlightsuit and "Hundred Years War" McCain. Simply pathetic wimps every one of them.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Opus007]

I have been watching Joe in action since this show started. He hates Rachel, as soon as she starts to speak he tries to shut her down. (Show after show) 1) He has no respect for women- looks how he treats Mika. 2) Rachel is gay and a homophobe like Joe can't handle that. 3) Rachel is MUCH more intelligent than that neanderthal Joe.

Morning Morons belongs on Fox. He's an idiot!

[heywhat]

RM is one of my favorite analysts and JS one of my least favorite commentators but she can - at times - appear to think that her arguments as more reasoned and less biased than those of other guests.

http://strictlyanecdotal.com/2008/04/14/elitism-doesnt-have-anything-to-do-with-money.aspx

[nycjmp]

way to go Rachel!!!
you were in the right!

poor Joe ..packed up his toys and went home....

[Dannydel]

Rachel, you shouldn't engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person. Makes you look like a bully.
Joe needs to apply for a job at Fox. He could be another of their F.A.B. (fair & balanced) superstars.

[coach777b]

If MSNBC had any brains in its corporate structure, they would rescue Rachel Maddow from that DLC radio station, AirAmerica and give her her own show. She is intelligent, politically savvy and knows how to hold her own amongst the big boys. Scarborough, a failed one term Congressman, still thinks he has the answers, as long as they oppose any democratic or progressive program.
He left in a huff because she would not allow him to interrupt her again. He feels that opinions from women are secondary to whatever he thinks. When he disconnected his mike and walked off the set, they she have stopped him at the door and handed him his severance check.

[Chavez08]

Then he'd be replaced by Brzinskis' (sp) daughter who seems to be quite an elitist in her own right.

Isn't it time to get the millionaires off the air so we can get decent journalism and commentary back in this country? I'm so tired of such wealthy jack-ass try to analyze my life, my fears and my aspirations and spout-off as an authority on the reason for my decision to vote for Obama when he spends his weekends on a sailboat in Marthas Vineyard.

[TERRYKEITH4]

Right! That chick is a fascist. I quit watching MSNBC all together except when keith Olberman is on. He's the smartest one in the building. I like Cantessa, and Tamaran, and the other Lady that's usually there on the weekends, But that Brezinski chick turns my stomach.

[Rocky4356]

Must be tough for Joe when he goes home to be with his pals, if he has any, and get ribbed about running away like a little kid. Joe really showed why he was one term congressman. Maybe one of the pages yelled at him

[TERRYKEITH4]

LOL!!