Yes, let’s all come together, hold hands, unite . . . and blame President Trump for the shooting of Steve Scalise and others yesterday. Morning Joe opened today with predictable pieties, Joe Scarborough saying, for example, that “the heated rhetoric in this country has to calm down.”

But before the show’s first hour had ended, Mika Brzezinski turned the heat up to 11 by pointing the finger for the Scalise shooting in part at the president. An emotional Mika, after accusing President Trump of “promoting violence on the campaign trail,” continued:

“I’m not putting anything squarely on the president, but I have to say that this is the new added dynamic to what is a very dangerous climate.”

To his credit, Joe Scarborough did push back, saying that the climate was “a long time coming. It is 20, 30 years coming. And yes, we’ve spoken about Donald Trump, but if Donald Trump were to leave Washington tomorrow, we would have the same problems that we had the 30 years before Donald Trump was here. This is a systemic problem, and it’s been with us for a long time.”

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Joe, I think that, very carefully, we have to, we have to talk about the, the added dynamic here, because you have the right and the left, the extremes on the right and the left. You have fake news, you have conspiracy theorists who are really muddying the waters, and we have become desensitized. We also have a president who pushes fake news and conspiracy theories from birtherism to promoting violence on the campaign trail. I mean, this is the new dynamic here. I’m not putting anything squarely on the president, but I have to say that this is the new added dynamic to what is a very dangerous climate. Joining us from Capitol Hill — JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, it is, it is, it is a long time coming. It is 20, 30 years coming, and yes, we’ve spoken about Donald Trump. But if Donald Trump were to leave Washington tomorrow, we would have the same problems that we had the 30 years before Donald Trump was here. This is a systemic problem, and it’s been with us for a long time.



