‘Morning Joe’ Says Trump Shouldn’t Have Started Redistricting Fight After Virginia Dems Win: ‘Avoidable’ | Video

The hosts of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” reacted Wednesday morning to Virginia voters approving Democrats’ proposed amendment to redraw the state’s Congressional districts ahead of this year’s midterms, remarking that Republicans “should have never started this.”

“They started this fight because Donald Trump said, ‘I want my five seats in Texas,'” host Joe Scarborough noted at the top of the segment, referencing the demand that kickstarted the redistricting battle that has been waged over the past year. “It just reminded me so many times when I first got up to Congress. You know, a certain speaker would do something, plan something, and it seemed like the greatest idea. And then Democrats would go, ‘OK. Well, we’re going to do this in response.'”

“I remember time and time again, people standing up going, ‘It’s a great idea, but you’ve got to start planning your response to their response to your great idea.’ And that’s what’s happened here,” Scarborough explained. “The Democrats are going to end up at least doing as well in redistricting.”

“They should have never started this,” Scarborough ultimately said, adding, “Anybody that dares complain about what the Democrats are doing, you have to remember it’s all in response to something that was completely avoidable.”

Watch the full “Morning Joe” segment below.

“Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist echoed Scarborough’s sentiments, arguing that Virginia Democrats’ victory this week is a direct result of the Republican Party’s unwavering support for Donald Trump.

“This is what happens when you have a party whose membership blindly follows Donald Trump down every path,” Geist said. “They don’t stop, perhaps, to consider the consequences.” Geist went on to note that this particular battle marks one of the times when elected Democrats have chosen to play the same game as Republicans.

“There are principled stands where Democrats say, ‘Well, we shouldn’t do the bad thing that Republicans are doing, too,'” Geist acknowledged. “But I think there are a lot of Democrats this morning who appreciate the fight that Virginia Democrats showed and said, ‘You know what, if they’re going to play the game this way, then we have to play it this way, too. And if we play, we’re going to win.’ And last night they did.”

Scarborough, for his part, said that Trump’s reliance on “gut instinct” continues to cost his political party.

“You can look at Iran. You can look at redistricting. You can look at tearing down the East Wing of the White House,” the “Morning Joe” host remarked. “All of these things where the president acts just on gut instinct, there’s always blowback, and usually it’s not good for the Republican Party.”

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