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On CNN, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery slammed MSNBC's Joe Scarborough for his earlier remarks that Lowery should have listened to the cops more closely before being arrested in Ferguson, Mo. Wesley Lowery slams Joe Scarborough

Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery slammed MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Thursday morning for suggesting he and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly should have more closely followed police instructions when they were arrested Wednesday night in Ferguson, Mo.

“Well, I would invite Joe Scarborough to come down to Ferguson and get out of 30 Rock where he’s sitting sipping his Starbucks smugly. I invite him to come down here and talk to residents of Ferguson where I have been Monday afternoon having tear gas shot at me, rubber bullets shot at me, having mothers, daughter, a 19-year-old boy, crying, running to pull his 21-year-old sister out from a cloud of tear gas thinking she would die,” Lowery said on CNN’s “New Day.” “I would invite Joe Scarborough down here to do some reporting on the ground, and then maybe we can have an educated conversation about what’s happening down here.”

Ferguson has been the site of protests and heavy police presence since the death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American who was shot several times by an officer. The chief of police there has refused to disclose the identity of the officer in question, citing safety concerns. On Wednesday evening Lowery and Reilly were arrested and held at a police station after police officers told them to leave a McDonald's near the epicenter of the protests from which they had been working. They were released after a Los Angeles Times reporter called the Ferguson police chief to notify him that two reporters were in custody.

On Thursday morning, Scarborough responded to a video Lowery shot of the incident in which a police officer can be seen telling Lowery to leave the restaurant and stop filming, as Lowery tries to ask the officer questions. Scarborough said he found it “hard to believe” that the reporters couldn’t have been more subtle, and if it had been his son facing the police, he would’ve told him to move along faster.

“I’ve been in places where police officers said, ‘all right you know what, this is cordoned off, you guys need to move along.’ You know what I do? I go, ‘yes, sir, or yes, ma'am.’ I don't sit there and have a debate and film the police officer unless I want to get on TV and have people talk about me the next day,” Scarborough said on “Morning Joe.” “I am sure I am just the worst person in the world for saying this. I can only judge how I would treat my son who is a reporter who, if he were in this position, OK, well, you know what? Next time a police officer tells you that you've got to move along because you've got riots outside, well, you probably should move along.”

Lowery said on CNN he has “little patience” for talking heads.

“I have little patience for talking heads. This is too important. This is a community in the United States of America, where we’re seeing it on fire, they are on fire, this community is on edge, there is so much happening here and instead of getting more reporters on the ground we have people like Joe Scarborough who are running their mouths and have no idea what they’re talking about,” Lowery said.

Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico.