On Tuesday’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Joe Scarborough brought on Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro (TX) to discuss Trump’s ever-shuffling cabinet and the implications of the appointment of John Bolton as the president’s new national security adviser for U.S. foreign policy.
Castro, who is a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committee, used the opportunity to warn MSNBC viewers that Trump is “clearing out anybody who isn't subservient and obsequious to him” so that he can start a war with North Korea, which could ultimately kill millions of people on the Korean Peninsula, including thousands of Americans [transcript from RealClearPolitics, emphasis mine]:
SCARBOROUGH: Congressman, let's first start by asking you your reaction to John Bolton's appointment and what it means for the United States foreign policy.
REP. CASTRO: I think it affirms to me the idea Joe that if diplomacy fails with North Korea this administration and this president have a desire to go to war with North Korea, and I don’t say that lightly.
I mean based on everything that I've seen in classified and, of course, unclassified settings, I believe that this president basically wants to go to war with North Korea and the appointment of Ambassador Bolton, to me, is an affirmation of that.
SCARBOROUGH: What's the -- what's the impact -- let's say the United States attacks -- bombs unilaterally North Korea the way John Bolton has said he wants the United States to do? Based on unclassified material that you've seen in your committees and in Congress how many deaths does that lead to, not only of South Koreans but also of Americans in that region?
CASTRO: You're talking about a minimum of hundreds of thousands of people dead if not millions of people. That's what's at stake here.
Even though Castro went on to clarify that he would support Trump if the president decided to go to war against North Korea, Castro also told “Morning Joe” senior contributor Mike Barnicle that he thought it was his duty as a congressman to “speak up in the press” and be a “check” against a president “who is determined to go to war.”
“Morning Joe” has been a frequent source of pro-North Korean propaganda recently.
For example, in October 2017, Joe Scarborough and rest of the MSNBC morning show crew used a long segment of their broadcast to speculate that Trump and Republicans would cause a “nuclear holocaust” on the Korean Peninsula because of Trump’s “crazy,” “reckless,” and “irresponsible” behavior. At one point during the segment, Scarborough insisted that “Republicans really have a responsibility to talk about the imminent threat that they know… [Trump] poses to the safety and the security of the United States of America."
For his part, and as might be suggested by his placement on the House Intel Committee, Joaquin Castro is no insignificant or fringe player in either Congress or the Democratic Party. His twin brother Julian Castro, who served as Obama’s final Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is widely expected to run in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, and Joaquin’s national profile will surely rise in prominence if his brother clinches the party’s nomination.