MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt got into a heated exchange Monday morning over the conservative media's general support for Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, even though in Scarborough's opinion, Carson is not a viable nominee.

"These stories do not add up," Scarborough said, referring to inspiring anecdotes Carson has said are part of his lifestory but that have fallen under scrutiny. "The conservative media knows these stories do not add up. How long do we sit back quietly and pretend that they do add up because we don't want to offend our audience?"

Hewitt said the conservative media should "not engage in knifing our candidates" and should instead call on the mainstream press to cover Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton more aggressively.

"You folks in the Manhattan, D.C. beltway media elite do not care to dive deep into the narratives of Democrats," Hewitt said to Scarborough, who is a former Republican congressman.

"Hugh, don't embarrass yourself because you're talking about me, a guy who's gone after Republicans and Democrats and media bias," Scarborough said. "You owe me an apology on the air right now because you know better than to say that about me."

Hewitt maintained that the "mainstream media will not cover Hillary's problems," though the New York Times broke the controversy about Clinton's private email server.

Several parts of Carson's autobiography, harrowing in detail, have recently fallen under scrutiny after news outlets have been unable to independently corroborate them with people from Carson's past.

Last week, after Politico said Carson's campaign admitted that something in his book wasn't correct, Carson and his conservative allies fought back by saying the story was incorrect, prompting Politico to reshape the story.