MSNBC host Joe Scarborough threw cold water on the notion of a moral victory for Democrats after their defeat in Georgia's special congressional election, calling it a "big loss" for the party on Wednesday.
Scarborough pointed out that Republican Karen Handel outperformed President Donald Trump's percentage margin of victory in the Georgia sixth congressional district from November, winning by four points over Democrat Jon Ossoff. It was the most expensive race in U.S. House history, with Democrats spending $30 million to still come up short.
"As we've said all along, all the chips were pushed to the middle of the table here. This was a winner-take-all, and it was a huge win for Republicans and a big loss for Democrats," Scarborough said.
He said Democrats needed to be willing to embrace candidates who better represented their district. Republicans were able to effectively tie Ossoff, who did not even live in Georgia's sixth district, to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) in their advertising campaign.
"They've got to figure out how to win, and going further left is only going to lead to more losses," Scarborough said.
Donald Trump only won the district by 1 point. After all the marches, all the millions spent, all the madness in DC, Ossoff does worse. https://t.co/htAGTqTynz
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 21, 2017
Actually, let's. We would have been drawing big conclusions if Ossoff had one. This is a huge setback for Democrats. https://t.co/BP6b9f4Kbh
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 21, 2017
While some Democrats like Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez expressed pride over Ossoff making the race close, Scarborough tweeted he was ready to call "bullshit" on making speeches about moral victories.
After Alabama lost 6 years in a row to Auburn, I called bullshit on speeches about moral victories. Democrats should be doing the same now. https://t.co/hgbY0yce8v
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 21, 2017