MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said President Donald Trump’s “frantic and furious moves” show how terrified he is of meeting face to face special counsel Robert Mueller.

The “Morning Joe” host said Trump was trashing the FBI and Department of Justice in hopes of avoiding the interview, because he knows how badly he would fare against the special counsel.

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“He understands that he’s not smart enough, he understands that he’s not smooth enough, he understands that he’s just too slow to keep up with Robert Mueller,” Scarborough said. “He doesn’t have the nerve.”

Trump’s lawyers fear the interview would be a perjury trap, as Mueller investigates the president’s campaign ties to Russia and his efforts to conceal those now that he’s in the White House.

“He’s scared to death right now that he’s going to have to actually testify in front of Robert Mueller because he knows that Mueller will outwit him at every turn,” Scarborough said. “He knows that Mueller will outthink him at every turn. He’ll know that when he’s sitting in that interview across from Robert Mueller, that Mueller will be three, four, five steps ahead of him.”

“Donald Trump just doesn’t want to be humiliated that badly,” he continued, “so he’s frantically doing everything he can to avoid testifying despite the fact that that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe that Donald Trump should agree to an interview with Robert Mueller. But, again, Donald Trump knows that Robert Mueller is just a lot smarter than him, a lot shrewder than him, and so he’s doing all of these things.”

Even if the president succeeds in pushing Mueller off the case, Scarborough said the Russia probe could move into state courts or get picked up by a new special counsel.

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“Americans just need to keep in context, our viewers need to keep in context, if it’s not Robert Mueller getting all these people for committing crimes — it will be somebody else,” Scarborough said.

MSNBC_02-02-2018_07.17.43 from Travis Gettys on Vimeo.