We've long suspected that Joe Scarborough's rhetorical jihad on President Trump was fueled by Trump's tweet in which he wrote that Mika Brzezinski, Scarborough's wife-to-be, was "bleeding badly from a facelift." And now we have confirmation.

This morning, Scarborough virtually admitted that the insult does indeed lie at the heart of his anti-Trump vendetta. Much of the opening segment of today's Morning Joe was devoted to tearing into Ted Cruz for defending President Trump, despite Trump, during the 2016 campaign, having said unflattering things about Cruz, his wife, and father.

Donny Deutsch was attacking "the pathetic wienieness" of Cruz for allying with Trump after Cruz attacked his family, and suggested to Scarborough that a real man never does that:

DONNY DEUTSCH: I want to just go back to Ted Cruz as a man for a second. Joe, you grew up in Pensacola, I grew up in Queens. What would your reaction be if somebody came after your father, if somebody came after your wife? You know, the pathetic wienieness of him. I couldn't wait to run against a guy like that and say, what kind of man not only lets it happen, but then gets on the bandwagon of somebody who went after their dad, who went after their wife, called their wife ugly. Joe, I know you’re a very genteel man, in Pensacola they just debate things in a very nice way. How would you handle it as a politician if somebody came after your family? JOE SCARBOROUGH: If somebody attacked my family, if somebody attacked my father and wife, I would spend the rest of my life actually focused on destroying their political career. I mean, I just would. I’d have no choice. That’s just — that’s just the way it is. DEUTSCH: That’s what a man does. That’s what a man does.

So there you have it: Scarborough letting the cat out of the bag. Because Trump insulted Mika, Joe has made his life's work "destroying [Trump's] political career." Confirmation as to why Morning Joe has degenerated into such a perpetual, predictable, and ultimately boring anti-Trump mess.

Note Donny Deutsch seconding Joe's vow to destroy someone who insults his family: "that's what a man does." So macho, that Donny!

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