MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough torched Donald Trump in a forceful rant Wednesday on “Morning Joe,” calling Trump a “bush league loser.”
He made the comments while acting out what he believes Republican elected officials should tell Trump when suspending their endorsement over comments Trump has made about a judge’s Hispanic heritage.
“Hey, Donald, guess what, I’m not going to support you until you get your act together,” Scarborough said. “You are acting like a bush league loser. You’re acting like a racist, you’re acting like a bigot.”
“This called art of the deal,” Scarborough yelled. “I’m taking my deal off the table, Donald, until you come back to the table and get on the other side of the table and prove to me that you’re not a bigot and prove to me you’re not going to take my party down in the ditch, you don’t have my endorsement, and you can’t use Hillary Clinton as a gun against my head.”
“I’m taking the gun away from my head, I’m putting it on the table and now it is in your hands on whether you are going to prove to the Republican Party and me personally that you’re not a bigot. So don’t use Hillary Clinton as a threat against me. Don’t use Hillary Clinton as an excuse, as your blank check to say racist things about people born in Indiana.”
“No, Donald, you don’t get to play it that way,” he continued. “I’m not scared of you, and I’m not scared of the base because they’re just as pissed off as me.”
“Walk away,” Scarborough concluded. “It’s the art of the deal. It’s what Donald Trump has been preaching all of his life. They are — I can’t say the word that they are. They’re weak. … They are being weak. They need to negotiate.”
Later, he said, “It’s the worst of all worlds … because if they embrace the racists, to beat Hillary, they lose to Hillary and they destroy the party.”
“Listen to me, guys!” Scarborough vented. “You embrace a guy making racist comments … you lose the presidency … and then you lose the Senate and you lose the House. And then we, small government conservatives, we’re screwed because you’ve destroyed our party ’cause you’re running scared. … You’ve gotta stand up to Donald Trump and say prove to us that you deserve our support.”
Trump, apparently caught word of Scarborough’s rant and vented is frustration on Twitter through a mixture of retweets and tweets of his own.
“@JoeDeFranco: Top RINO hack for MSNBC Joey Scarborough on the air and calling the next President Trump a racist and bigot. Shame on you”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2016
Nobody is watching @Morning_Joe anymore. Gone off the deep end – bad ratings. You won’t believe what I am watching now!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2016
