On the July 17, 2026, episode of Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough read from an intelligence document stating that Russian actors had circulated narratives about voter fraud resulting from mail-in balloting and had called some U.S. primary voting processes “rigged” by the Democratic Party.
Scarborough then claimed that this “Russian idea” of talking about rigged elections had infected Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign and accused President Trump of delivering Vladimir Putin’s talking points.
Scarborough said:
Here’s the thing: He didn’t prove what he wanted to prove. He didn’t prove anything about China that we didn’t already know before. He spread a lot of disinformation.
But I am grateful, and I think America should be grateful, for the president getting some of these documents out.
If you don’t mind, I’m just going to read from a couple of them right now.
The Russian government has advanced such narratives with U.S. officials and other prominent persons, as well as online.
These figures are conspiring to intensify their efforts as the election approaches to orchestrate a high-profile corruption scandal implicating Joe Biden and the Democratic Party at the peak of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Their aim is to defeat the former vice president and ensure the president’s victory.
And here’s the crazy thing, really. I guess this is a very Russian thing to do. The Russians have done it, and if you’re one of these influencers who has been infected by these Russian conspiracy theories, you’re going to do it too.
Are you ready for this?
Russian actors—this is shocking that anybody would do this, and I guess it’s just East versus West. We don’t think the way they do. It is shocking that they would do this.
Russian actors have circulated narratives about voter fraud resulting from mail-in balloting and called some U.S. primary voting processes “rigged” by the Democratic Party.
So this Russian idea of talking about rigged elections infected the 2020 campaign—the one that Donald Trump is running.
It’s crazy, isn’t it, that anybody would use that Russian talking point, that propaganda point about “rigged elections”?
To hear the president of the United States deliver Vladimir Putin’s talking points from the East Room of the White House in prime time was shocking.
Scarborough delivered the accusation with exaggerated laughter, mock disbelief, and theatrical sarcasm—as if Trump’s exposure of election fraud and serious vulnerabilities in our election system were too absurd to even consider.
Yet Scarborough’s argument proves nothing about whether Trump’s claims are true or false.
Russia did not invent voter fraud, inaccurate voter rolls, weak verification procedures, or mail-in voting risks.
Americans see these problems firsthand as voters, poll workers, and observers. We do not need Vladimir Putin to point out that mail-in voting does not have the same safeguards as in-person voting conducted under supervision.
Raising questions about real weaknesses in our decentralized election system—inconsistent standards, chain-of-custody concerns, limited observation, and varying verification methods—is not a Russian talking point.
It is basic oversight.
Scarborough also portrayed allegations involving election fraud by Democrats as Russian propaganda while refusing to report on any of it!
He casually dismissed the China-related documents as well, admitting he had not reviewed them all before joking about leaving the set to gamble at 1 p.m.
He had plenty of time to mock Trump, but apparently not enough time to examine all the evidence before passing judgment.
The American media and political establishment work together to suppress information about election fraud and foreign interference—then smear Trump and others who investigate them as mouthpieces for Vladimir Putin.
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