On Friday's "Morning Joe," eponymous host Joe Scarborough claimed GOP nominee Donald Trump's fire-breathing rhetoric is all an act.
"Anybody that knows Donald knows that that Donald last night was closer to the Donald Trump that we've all known for decades than the character he's playing," Scarborough said of Trump's unusually scripted speech on Thursday night — which some called a pivot-point. "Because ... make no mistake of it, this loud, screaming, racially insensitive, at times race-baiting buffoon that gets behind microphones at political rallies, that's Donald Trump playing a role."
"I've always found him to be charming, smart, generous of spirit if you ever called him up," guest Donny Deutsch said of Trump, whom he said he knows personally well. "Having said that, this man I've seen up on the stump is repulsive to me."
Scarborough's stance on Trump, however, has been consistently inconsistent — channeling Sam and Diane from "Cheers."
Way back in December, Scarborough heatedly cut to commercial during an on-air interview with the then-long shot GOP candidate, who wasn't allowing Joe and co-host Mika Brzezinski to ask any questions.
In May, he defended Trump after The New York Times ran its profile of the mogul's pattern of allegedly sexually harassing his female employees.
In early June, he revoked his endorsement of Trump, who he said, "destroyed our party."
Two weeks later, he likened Trump to "a guy training for a marathon and, five weeks before the marathon, all he’s doing is sitting on his couch drinking beer [and] bragging about how great of a runner he is."
Catch Scarborough's latest stance below, courtesy of MediaMatters:
Shares