A furious Joe Scarborough on Thursday dropped an f-bomb on live television while talking about the pro-Trump riots at the U.S. Capitol, calling for the arrests of President Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump Jr. for insurrection.
The MSNBC host issued a fiery condemnation of the Capitol Police response to the mob while speaking on “Morning Joe,” questioning why the group of predominately white Trump supporters were not forcefully stopped from breaching the complex.
“If these insurrectionists were black, they would have been shot in the face,” Scarborough said. “And my god, if these insurrectionists were Muslim they would have been sniped from the top of buildings.”
“So I want to know from the Capitol Hill police — what, is it just white people? Or is it Donald Trump supporters? Why do you scream at people for walking across the street three blocks away from the Capitol? Why are you known as these badasses around the Capitol? But then Trump supporters come in and you open the f—— doors for them. You open the doors for them and let them breach the people’s house. What is wrong with you?”
The former GOP lawmaker questioned: “Are we a nation of laws? Are we a nation of one man?”
Scarborough then turned to Trump, his eldest son and Giuliani, who held a rally with the same group of supporters just before the crowd stormed the federal building. The host said that their rhetoric contributed to the uprising.
“That’s insurrection against the United States of America and if Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump are not arrested today for insurrection and taken to jail and booked — and if the Capitol Hill police do not go through every video and look at the face of every person that invaded our Capitol and if they are not arrested and brought to justice today — then we are no longer a nation of laws and we only tell people they can do this again,” Scarborough said.
During his Wednesday speech, Trump explicitly urged the protesters to march on Congress after the rally. He told the crowd that they were going to the Capitol to give Republicans the “boldness that they need to take back our country.”
“Let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue,” the president said, falsely telling the crowd that he would “be there with you.”
Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, called for a “trial by combat” during his remarks on Wednesday, referring to Trump’s team and Joe Biden’s team putting their reputations at stake over whether widespread fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump Jr. condemned Republicans in Congress who were not standing with the president’s debunked claims of voter fraud, telling the crowd they need to “stand up and fight.”
“You can either be a hero or you can be a zero,” Trump Jr. said. “And the choice is yours. But we are all watching. The whole world is watching, folks, choose wisely. … These guys better fight for Trump. Because if they’re not — guess what? I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months.”
The Trump Organization executive added: “We’re coming for you, and we’re going to have a good time doing it.”
As the violence raged at the Capitol, Trump released a video telling his supporters to disperse, but he continued to state his false claims that his election defeat was “fraudulent.”
“You have to go home now. We have to have peace,” Trump said. “We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.”
“This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people,” he continued. “We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.”
The video did not condemn the violence at the Capitol and did little to quell it.
Twitter and Facebook responded by temporarily suspending the president’s accounts for violating platform guidelines.