Joe Scarborough’s Thursday morning prediction regarding President Donald Trump’s upcoming Supreme Court pick led to a brief but awkward silence on the set on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Responding to Axios co-founder Mike Allen, who said Trump’s pick might ultimately come down to the candidate he feels “most comfortable” with in the moment, Joe said, “So you’re saying he’s going to pick the man … the white man?”
Allen explained what insiders were saying about the rumored favorites, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
“The inside line is that Amy Barrett will be better for the base, but a tougher confirmation fight. But that’s the calculus aides are making. But people are involved and for the president it is going to be all about the personal connection. Who he feels comfortable with in the moment.”
Scarborough interrupted then, asking, “So you’re saying that he’s going to pick the man … the white man.”
Allen was visibly uncomfortable, and cohost Mika Brzezinski shook her head. “Oh, no, I totally don’t think that.”
“You disagree?” Scarborough asked, to which Allen responded, “I don’t know.”
Scarborough went on to defend his statement by explaining, “If you look and see through the first year, 90% of Donald Trump selections for U.S. Attorneys and judges were white men.”