The stance being taken by Hillary Clinton's campaign over the growing "pay-for-play" controversy involving the Clinton Foundation is "pathetic," MSNBC's "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough said Thursday morning, decrying claims that it is necessary for former President Bill Clinton to continue his fundraising activities for the charity.

"You're not that pathetic, are you?" Scarborough said, responding to a statement made by Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon on Wednesday defending the Clinton Foundation.

Fallon, after alleging the scandal is politically motivated, told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell that "if any American voter is troubled by the idea that the Clintons want to continue working the AIDs crisis on the side while Hillary Clinton is president, then don't vote for her, but I think most voters are pretty reasonable on that point."

"You are not that pathetic are you?" Scarborough continued? "Are you going to say if Bill Clinton doesn't have the opportunity to shake down billionaires, AIDS won't be cured? If you're keeping score at home, Barack Obama is Moses and has the ability to stop the tides."

And if that is Fallon's line of attack, Scarborough said, he needs to "go back to middle school."

Political commentator Mike Barnicle said he does not understand why the Clinton Foundation does not merge forces with the Bill Gates Foundation, but Scarborough said that wouldn't work for the Clintons, as Bill Clinton wouldn't then be able to charge $550,000 for a one-hour speech.

"Bill Gates doesn't shake down people for $550,000 for a one-hour speech," said Scarborough.

Hillary Clinton also defended herself against GOP candidate Donald Trump's attacks on the foundation Wednesday, calling his comments "ridiculous" and denying that her work as secretary of state was influenced by outside forces. Earlier this week, the Clinton camp said foreign donations to the foundation would be cut back if she becomes president.

"I want to see them explain so I can understand better for myself why donations from foreign governments and corporations are corrupting, but for rich people in America it's not corrupting," New York Times political correspondent Nicholas Confessore, also on the show's panel, commented.

"I'm not sure why they made that the land in the sand, how they're going to place the ethics of this conflict of interest. I'm very confused by it."

John Heilemann, managing editor for Bloomberg Politics, said he'd commented on Wednesday that the foundation should be shut down over the questions over its donors, and that was when Clinton adviser James Carville said people would be "going to hell" if that happened, as lives would be lost without the Clinton connection to the foundation.

"I'm going for a lot of other reasons," said Heilemann. "That's already a foregone conclusion. I'm now on the express train. But I will say that The Boston Globe, The Huffington Post and the Daily Beast and The New Yorker, these are not right wing people.

"[They are] all people who have said over the last week or so that the foundation should not have the Clinton name on it. That all the good works that it does can be farmed out to other nonprofits and absorbed whether it's in the Gates Foundation or rebranded."