On the wake of Wednesday’s NBC News report that Rex Tillerson’s now infamous “moron” remark was in response to President Donald Trump reportedly asking for a tenfold (!?) increase of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough claimed we may be closer now to a nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski linked the NBC report to Trump’s “erratic, unpredictable…and extremely concerning behavior,” and Scarborough added that Sen. Bob Corker, a leader in Trump’s own party, said the president’s rhetoric could lead the U.S. to World War III.

“This statement is unprecedented in modern American history, from a leader on the Hill whose president is in the same party with them,” Scarborough said. “It’s never happened before.”

Scarborough called out Republicans for remaining silent as President Donald Trump senselessly provokes World War III.

“Every Republican senator on Capitol Hill has the record before them,” Scarborough said. “Calling for a tenfold increase in nuclear weapons, having the most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill saying Donald Trump’s erratic words and actions are leading us towards World War III.”

Scarborough continued that no Senate Republicans have publicly refuted Corker’s comments, claiming that their silence is a sign they agree with their colleague.

The Morning Joe co-host then said “foreign policy people” have told him off the record, with regards to North Korea, “that actually we are far closer to a cataclysmic event than even the media is talking about.”

He challenged Republicans to push back against the president’s provocations.

“These Republican senators in the middle of October 2017 have that responsibility for millions and millions of Americans and others across the globe, and if they can’t do that, then there’s something called the 25th Amendment that they’re going to have to start looking at,” Scarborough said. “This is not acceptable as the status quo. We have the most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill saying the president of the United States could be leading us toward nuclear war, and Republican senators remain silent.”

MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle noted that during the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders in both Moscow and Washington D.C. were “rational actors.”

“And I don’t think you can say comfortably, with any assurance, that today in Washington D.C. we have a rational actor.”

“Where are the Republicans?” Scarborough asked, of GOP lawmakers still standing by Trump.

Watch the video below:

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