Morning Joe panelists rip 'completely racist' Trump

The feud between Donald Trump and MSNBC's "Morning Joe" kicked up several notches Monday morning, days after the presumptive Republican nominee remarked that Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel's Mexican heritage presents a conflict of interest in his ability to preside over lawsuits related to his Trump University business because he is "building a wall."

Trump then told CBS' "Face the Nation" in another interview aired Sunday that the same principle might apply to a Muslim judge due to his call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration. "I'm talking about common sense, OK? He's somebody, he's proud of his heritage, and I think that's great that he's proud of his heritage."


"He's not treating me fairly," Trump told CBS' John Dickerson.

"Can I just do a poll? Is that racism?" co-host Mika Brzezinski asked panelist Nicolle Wallace, who replied, "Yes."

"Joe ... " Brzezinski began.

Before she could finish asking him if the statement was racist, Scarborough remarked, "It's completely racist."

"Here you have a guy that is from Indiana, from Indiana. I think his family, if I'm not mistaken, had been in the country longer than Trump's grandmother," Scarborough said.

Brzezinski then asked guest Rev. Al Sharpton if Trump's comment represented racism.

"Oh, it's absolutely, unequivocally racist," Sharpton said.

Scarborough then turned his fire to Republicans who have endorsed Trump and who feigned shock at the comments.

"They can't be morally outraged this week when they knew what he was doing last week. And by the way, I said it here on the TV box. And you can check it out on the TV box. I said, all the way back in December, I would never endorse Donald Trump so long as he supported banning 1.4 million people for entering the last best hope for a dying world, the United States of America, simply because of the god they worship. Simply because they were Muslim," Scarborough said.

He continued, remarking that while he and Brzezinski had predicted that Trump would win the nomination and "pissed a lot of people off" in the process while making clear that he would "never support" someone who advocated such a ban.

"I also said, what he said about David Duke was disqualifying. Wrote it in The Washington Post. So these Republicans, this week, who were so shocked and stunned and deeply saddened and offended by this clear act of racism had all the evidence in the world before that he had done things that again stopped them from endorsing him," Scarborough said, before asking House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) how he could endorse Trump, a candidate supporting the temporary ban of Muslims.

"You make him back down, actually," Scarborough said. "That's what I was hoping, that perhaps we could put pressure on him to back down and change that policy."

Ryan, Scarborough continued, "cannot say, 'Oh, well, Donald Trump's Donald Trump.' Donald Trump's Donald Trump, but the House is -- no, now he endorses Donald Trump. He endorses his racism against Muslims, Paul Ryan endorses his racism against Mexicans. Paul Ryan endorses his racism against Americans who may have, oh, I don't know, 1/16th Mexican blood in there, saying they're disqualified to be judges."

The show then played a clip of Trump remarking at a Friday event, "Look at my African-American over there," while pointing to an African-American man in the crowd.

"This is the guy the Republican party says should be in charge of the government of the United States and the armed services, to appoint judges, Supreme Court judges -- this is the guy [who says] 'look at my African-American over there,' While the Mexican judge, who is not Mexican, he's Indianan," Sharpton said.

"He's a Hoosier, for God's sake!" Scarborough interjected. "He's a Hoosier!"

Trump on Friday accused the MSNBC morning show of "losing its way," tweeting, “I don't watch or do @Morning_Joe anymore. Small audience, low ratings! I hear Mika has gone wild with hate. Joe is Joe. They lost their way!”

