During a Thursday panel discussion about the importance of the black vote in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough explained why black voters in the South are hesitant to support socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Princeton University Professor Eddie Glaude said black voters “are more moderate and conservative than most people think,” suggesting they do not “trust white America to vote for a progressive.”

Scarborough argued Southern black voters can not take chances on Sanders’ “esoteric theories.”

“I don’t know that black voters going in on Super Tuesday were asking themselves about Dick Morris and triangulation or the crime bill or stop-and-frisk,” Scarborough began. “I think they were asking the same question that a lot of other Democrats are asking, ‘Wait a second, OK. Who has a better chance of beating Donald Trump? The guy who’s still running around defending Fidel Castro’s programs in Cuba, his literacy programs in Cuba, still defending the Sandinistas, still defending the Soviets talking about their glittering subways?’ Because you see, here’s the thing about blacks in the South: They live in the South. They know the history of the South. They know that Republicans dominate the South, and they know that unlike liberals on the Upper East Side of Manhattan or in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they can’t take chances on esoteric theories.”

He continued, “It’s hardball politics, and they got to get the guy, or the woman, who can stop Donald Trump dead in their tracks. I think that’s the calculation. I think it’s a calculation Jim Clyburn made, and I think it’s a calculation that black voters will continue to make throughout this process. But their voices, Mika, on Tuesday night and in South Carolina, were remarkable. And I got to say, Jim Clyburn still just such a remarkable powerful voice in the Democratic Party.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent