‘Morning Joe’ Scarborough uncorked a lengthy attack on President Trump’s mental fitness for office on Thursday after his wild anti-Muslim tweets started a diplomatic incidents – and attacked the anchor personally.
The attack from the anchor came a day after Trump tweeted a conspiracy theory implying the MSNBC host murdered a female staffer who died in her office.
Three separate retweets of anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right British nationalist on the same day created an international row between Trump and the British prime minister, Theresa May, who rebuked him for the posts.
‘We are headed towards a nuclear showdown,’ Scarborough said, pointing to the escalating confrontation with North Korea. ‘And yet he’s completely detached from reality.’
Scarborough implored Trump’s cabinet members to invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which allows for the removal from office of an unfit chief executive, calling him ‘mentally unfit.’
Trump went after Scarborough online Wednesday in the wake of the firing of ‘Today’ show host Matt Lauer, asking about the ‘unsolved mystery’ in Florida – an apparent reference to a 28-year old staffer who worked for Scarborough when he was a member of Congress.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough called President Trump ‘completely detached from reality’
The medical examiner said she hit her head on her desk at his district office after having hear heart problems.
Scarborough’s fiancee and co-host read a joint statement on the matter on air. ‘Today the president crossed another deep and disturbing line with his attacks on Joe. The chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America advanced a false conspiracy theory to intimidate the press and cause a chilling effect on the First Amendment,’ she said.
‘Joe and I are not intimidated. And his bizarre behavior contravenes both the Constitution and basic moral judgment.’
The tweet aimed at Scarborough had followed three anti-Muslim videos, one of them fake, which the president tweeted early that morning.
Scarborough spoke directly to Trump cabinet officials, who under the 25th amendment could vote to remove him.
‘If this is not what the 25th Amendment was drafted for … I would like the Cabinet members, serving America, not the president, serving America. You serve America and you know it. You know you don’t serve Donald J. Trump, scam developer, Trump University proprietor, reality TV show host. You don’t represent him,’ Scarborough said.
Scarborough tore into Trump after the president raised a conspiracy theory involving a 28-year old staffer who died while working for him in 2001 when he was in Congress
‘You represent 325 million people whose lives are literally in your hands, and we are facing a showdown with a nuclear power and you have somebody inside the White House that the New York Daily News says is mentally unfit. That people close to him say is mentally unfit. That people close to him during the campaign told me had early stages of dementia.’
In a long screed he told them: ‘Now listen you an get mad at me if you want to.’
‘When are we supposed to say this?’ Scarborough asked. ‘After the first nuclear missile goes? Is that when it’s proper to bring this up in polite society?’
‘Tell me, Gen. Mattis, when is it polite to bring this up in polite society?’
Turning to Trump’s secretary of state, who is reported to have called the president ‘moron’ and may be on the way out soon, Scarborough said: ‘Rex Tillerson, when is this the right time to talk about a mentally unstable president in the White House and a nuclear showdown with another unstable madman in North Korea. Is it after the first nuclear missiles fly?’
‘We are not fine in this country,’ Scarborough said. ‘We are headed towards a nuclear showdown.’
‘When are we supposed to say this?’ Scarborough asked. ‘After the first nuclear missile goes? Is that when it’s proper to bring this up in polite society?’
Scarborough delivered his attack on Trump’s sanity during his panel on ‘Morning Joe’
‘We are closer to war on the Korean peninsula than most Americans know. We heard this months ago that we are going to have a ground war in Korea.
Yet he said Trump was ‘completely detached from reality.’
The New York Daily News wrote in an editorial that kicked off the discussion: ‘Only those completely under his spell can deny what growing numbers of Americans have long suspected: The President of the United States is profoundly unstable. He is mad. He is by any honest layman’s definition mentally unwell.’
Under the 25th Amendment, the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet (or another body determined by Congress) can write a letter to the House and Senate stating that the president is ‘unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.’
When that happens, if Congress decides by a two-thirds vote of both houses that the president is unable to discharge his duties, the vice president would become ‘acting president.’ Otherwise, the president ‘shall resume the powers and duties of his office.’
Trump celebrated ‘Today’ show host Matt Lauer’s firing from NBC by going after executives and stoking a feud with Scarborough – even dredging up a conspiracy theory about the death of a former Scarborough staffer.
President Donald Trump went after executives and stoked a feud with MSNBC host Joe Scarborough after ‘Today’ show Matt Lauer’s firing
Trump tweeted twice Wednesday about Lauer’s firing for alleged sexual misconduct – and immediately went after Scarborough, the former Florida congressman who has gone after Trump and changed his party registration.
‘So now that Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of [president] Phil Griffin? And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the ‘unsolved mystery’ that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!’ Trump wrote.
The president’s mention of the ‘unsolved mystery’ was presumably an effort to dredge up a conspiracy theory from 2001 about a 28-year-old staffer who was found dead in one of Scarborough’s district offices when he was a Florida congressman.
The president brought up an ‘unsolved mystery,’ a reference to the death of a Scarborough staffer in 2001
Earlier, right after the Lauer news broke, the President tweeted this about ‘fake news’ and NBC News Chairman Andy Lack
The staffer, Lori Klausutis, died after a having a heart arrhythmia and hitting her head on her desk, according to a medical examiner’s report.
Nevertheless, the story drew online conspiracy theories that Klausutis had been killed in some kind of a cover up.
Scarborough himself has reacted angrily when the conspiracy theory has popped up on several occasions, blasting the ‘libelous charge’ when a Vanity Fair journalist brought it up.
In his crosshairs: Trump used Matt Lauer’s firing to re-open his long-running feud with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the co-hosts of Morning Joe
Joe referenced Trump’s attack with this tweet later in the morning
Targeted by Trump: NBC News chairman Andy Lack (left, with Megyn Kelly) and MSNBC president Phil Griffin (right, with Stephanie Ruhle) were mentioned in tweets by the president. References to them were not carried in NBCNews.com’s account of Lauer’s firing
Scarborough wrote: (1) Lori worked in my annex office in Okaloosa County, Florida. (2) I met her no more than three times; I was never alone with her. (3) I didn’t leave Congress because of her death; I announced my retirement from Congress in May 2001-she passed away several months later.’
Left-wing blogger Markos Moulitsas was banned from MSNBC after he brought up the conspiracy theory online.
Scarborough went after him online, writing: ‘@markos Unbelievable. You have a long history of spreading lies suggesting I am a murderer. This is the 3rd or 4th time by my count,’ Gawker reported.
Scarborough had announced his decision to retire from Congress after three terms that year.
He then went on to become an on-air host of ‘Morning Joe,’ where he interviewed Trump multiple times, visited Mar-a-Lago, and then had a highly public feud where Trump attacked Scarborough and his co-host turned fiancee Mika Brzezinski.
It is unclear what the reference to Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, was about, but Trump has long held a grudge against the network, which has been openly critical of him.
Trump also tried to throw mud at Andy Lack, the chairman of NBC and MSNBC.
‘Wow, Matt Lauer was just fired from NBC for ‘inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.’ But when will the top executives at NBC & Comcast be fired for putting out so much Fake News. Check out Andy Lack’s past!’ Trump wrote, without providing further explanation.
Much of the president’s tweet was included in NBCNews.com’s coverage of the firing of Lauer but not the reference to their two executives.
The website said: ‘Early Wednesday, President Donald Trump noted Lauer’s firing on Twitter, writing, ‘Wow, Matt Lauer was just fired from NBC for ‘inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.’ But when will the top executives at NBC & Comcast be fired for putting out so much Fake News.”