MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough is not impressed by the efforts to dig into the past of 17-year-old gunshot victim Trayvon Martin in attempts to perhaps make the case that racism wasn’t a motivation in his shooting death.
On Thursday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, the former Florida Republican congressman blasted those attempting to “blame” the tragedy on Martin and warned those doing so how they will look in the end.
“It has been, I believe, very regrettable, shameful in some cases, for some who have decided they are going to step out and try to blame this tragedy on a young African-American man who weighed 100 pounds less — weighing 100 pounds less than the man who was chasing him [with a] 9-millimeter gun while Trayvon Martin was carrying iced tea and Skittles,” Scarborough said. “I would suggest to those who would continue to adopt this twisted line for whatever reason: You will look foolish in the end, or worse.”
Scarborough added that the one with the gun, in this case accused shooter George Zimmerman, could only possibly be the “aggressor” and to say otherwise is “stupid.”
“Do not defend, you know — well, you defend who you want to defend,” he continued. “But if you’re attacking a young man who was minding his own business, carrying Skittles and iced tea through a neighborhood, trying to get home and yet he was chased through a neighborhood when the authorities were telling Zimmerman to get out of the way with a man with a 9-millimeter gun, it’s your defense of [the] 9-millimeter gun and your attempts to try to turn [the] victim in this case, the clear victim in this case, into the aggressor, is nothing short of shameful. You look stupid or worse.”
Scarborough drew an analogy between Martin and a rape victim, saying these attempts would be the equivalent of calling the rape victim “a slut.”
“This is the equivalent, Mika, just as immoral as somebody trying to say that a rape victim who was brutally raped was a slut and had it coming to her,” Scarborough said. “It’s the same exact thing. These people that are trying to turn Trayvon Martin into a thug should be ashamed of themselves. But since they are doing it, they obviously have no shame. They are just disgusting human beings. Disgusting.”