MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough torched Donald Trump Monday over his “stupid” refusal to condemn the Ku Klux Klan, a move that comes after reporters have questioned the cable news host’s cozy relationship with the GOP front-runner.
“The Republican front-runner’s failure to provide what should have been a simple answer has raised even more disturbing questions about the man who is on course to lock down the GOP’s nomination for president,” the host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.
“The first question is why would Trump pretend to be so ignorant of American history that he refused to pass judgment on the Ku Klux Klan before receiving additional information? What kind of facts could possibly mitigate a century of sins committed by a violent hate group whose racist crimes terrorized Americans and placed a shameful blot on this nation’s history?
“Why would the same man who claims to have ‘the world’s greatest memory’ say ‘I don’t know anything about David Duke’ just two days after he condemned the former Klansman in a nationally televised press conference? And with that amazing memory, how could Donald Trump have forgotten that he himself refused to run for president as a Reform Party nominee in 2000 because ‘Klansman’ David Duke was a member of that same party?” he added.
Scarborough’s harsh criticism comes after weeks of lavish praise for the billionaire businessman. His kind words for Trump have been so effusive that the Republican presidential candidate joked this month that the “Morning Joe” hosts make him sound like a “legendary figure.”
Scarborough’s relationship with Trump has been so chummy that it is reportedly making NBC Universal employees uncomfortable.
Citing as an example of the host’s familiarity with the GOP front-runner, CNN’s Dylan Byers underscored comments Scarborough made last year during a forum when he said, “I’ve actually called him up and said, ‘Donald, listen, you need to speak in complete sentences at debates.’ After the second debate … I walked into his office, I said, ‘Donald, do you know how to read?’ … I said, ‘You should read before a debate! … Read a paragraph on Syria, read a paragraph on education reform!’ ”
Byers continued, “The anecdotes, which were meant as a testament to Trump’s off-the-cuff political savvy, drew laughter from the audience. But today, at NBC Universal’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Center, Scarborough’s relationship with the Republican presidential front-runner has become a subject of frustration among staff, and an increasingly problematic issue for the network’s top brass.
“In background discussions, NBC News and MSNBC journalists, reporters and staffers said there was widespread discomfort at the network over Scarborough’s friendship with Trump and his increasingly favorable coverage of the candidate,” he added.
But on Monday, Scarborough didn’t have anything nice to say about Trump.
“Sunday’s distressing performance is just the latest in a string of incidents that suggest to critics that Donald Trump is using bigotry to fuel his controversial campaign. The most explicit of all examples was his December proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States,” he wrote.
Scarborough continued, warning that the GOP is on the verge of nominating “a man who refused to condemn the Ku Klux Klan and one of its most infamous Grand Wizards when telling the ugly truth wouldn’t have cost him a single vote.
“So is this how the party of Abraham Lincoln dies?” he asked.
