Morning Joe chastised Robert De Niro on Monday for his display at the Tony Awards in which he declared “Fuck Trump!” to an exuberant crowd.

The heavily-censored outburst, which has since gone viral, is sure to provide fodder for the culture wars, something Fox News host Laura Ingraham previewed shortly after De Niro blurted out the words twice on stage at Radio City Music Hall.

Morning Joe took note of that. Calling a moving performance by the Parkland students the highlight of the evening, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough deemed De Niro’s comments the “lowlight.”

“We will not actually play that clip, even with the seven-second delay,” Scarborough said as Mika Brzezinski shook her head disapprovingly, before reading a tweet from Steve Schmidt:

The greatest actor of his generation could have said something important. He could have defended liberal democracy or freedom of speech and expression. He could have stood for Decency. Instead he strengthened Trump’s hand by mirroring his debasement of our culture. Be better . https://t.co/dicDBu8ReX — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 11, 2018

Scarborough said those opposing Trump are mistaking Michelle Obama‘s “when they go low, we go high” saying for weakness.

“If people that applauded De Niro’s statement last night don’t understand that they are helping Donald Trump’s reelection every time they do something like that, they don’t understand,” Scarborough said.

#Resistance Twitter was having none of it. Morning Joe was trending on the social media platform Monday soon after the segment, as liberals lambasted the program for its hosts’ critiques of De Niro — with many pointing out that the MSNBC morning show gave Trump a friendly platform throughout the 2016 election, enabling his rise.

To hell with Morning Joe. These pretentious fucks pretend to be righteous, but spent half of 2016 propping Trump up. Robert De Niro telling Trump to fuck off won’t “hurt Democrats.” If vulgarity were a political liability, a senile reality star wouldn’t be in the White House. — ?Aiden Wolfe (@AidenWolfe) June 11, 2018

Someone want to tell the #MorningJoe crew that De Niro saying a curse word on TV last night is NOT what is going to get Trump reelected. Shows like #MorningJoe trying to normalize Trump is what will get him reelected. @MSNBC — His Dudeness (@ZJudkins) June 11, 2018

#MorningJoe Panel can kiss my a** and I mean that They really on TV saying that Robert De Niro was vile You know what’s vile..enabling a racist bigot during elections and helping him win the WH to implement policies where immigrant children are treated like animals.. — RespectMyGame ?? (@battletested5) June 11, 2018

Once again @Morning_Joe on his high horse over Robert De Niro. All I know is De Niro spoke for me last night. #MorningJoe #FuckTrump — ImpeachTrump (@dumptrump33) June 11, 2018

The media blaming Robert De Niro for strengthening Trump’s hand (Looking at you Morning Joe) are the biggest hypocrites on earth. While they worry about Trump and his voter’s “hand” children are being taken from their parents and held in cages. #FuckTrump — Maria1200 (@mariaso1200) June 11, 2018

Come on #MorningJoe. De Niro might’ve said #FuckTrump, but Joe spent the first part of his show saying Trump was weak and a snowflake and speculating about whether or not Trump was jealous of Trudeau. You don’t have to use swear words to go low. Also, Fuck Trump. — JennyCoCoCure✊? (@JennyCoCoCure) June 11, 2018

Dear #MorningJoe: a man saying “fuck Trump” is not going to result in @realDonaldTrump being reelected. That’s not how it works. Also: stop clutching your pearls over De Niro’s words, & focus on the reasons @POTUS is so deeply reviled. De Niro spoke for tens of millions of us. — Jim Pettit ? (@jim_pettit) June 11, 2018

I knew Joe and Mika would have their asses up their heads regarding Robert De Niro. They can save the outrage until they apologize for their Trump ass kissing during the campaign. #MorningJoe — Elliot Conner (@ECbball3) June 11, 2018

Watch the segment above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

—

Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]