Director Rob Reiner ripped “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for going too easy on Donald Trump on his road to the Republican presidential nomination.
“We have to hold these people accountable. We have to ask the tough second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-tier questions,” Reiner said. “The words that have been flung out from his mouth are insane. If he was not a celebrity, if Donald Trump was not a celebrity, the words that come out of his mouth, you’d see a guy in a park. A lunatic in a park on a soap box, and you’d walk right by him.”
Scarborough objected, saying he does ask Trump tough questions: “You’re being like Donald Trump. You’re just talking and not letting anyone else talk,” he said.
“He’s not pinned down,” Reiner told Brzezinski and Scarborough. “I want to hear how he’s going to deport twelve million people.”
Reiner tried to tell Brzezinski how to properly interview Trump, which the “Morning Joe” co-hosts didn’t appreciate.
“This is what everyone thinks and it’s one of the great frustrations of covering Donald Trump. People say, ‘you know what you should really ask him,’” Scarborough said. “Would you like me to actually get on top of him and pin him down with my knees?”
Brzezinski fired back, “Maybe I should stick my heel down his throat” if he’s not answering questions.
“It’s an on-going frustration for us,” Scarborough said.
Reiner is the latest person to attach the “Morning Joe” duo of being too friendly with Trump. Brzezinski and Scarborough were accused of turning a February MSNBC Town Hall with Donald Trump into a “puff session” — and that was before audio leaked from a hot mic that captured the trio talking during commercial breaks.
“We really do have to go to some questions,” Scarborough said during the break before Trump chimed in with, “Nothing too hard, Mika.” Brzezinski can be heard saying, “OK.” Brzezinski told the Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone that she was talking to her producer, not Trump.
TheBlaze founder Glenn Beck recently called out Scarborough, but not by name, in an open letter to Megyn Kelly.
“I pray you are not on a morning cable show with an invisible audience while you pretend you haven’t endorsed a candidate,” Beck wrote.
Beck appeared to take another shot at Scarborough’s treatment of Trump when he said: “At least I don’t have to become a ‘supporter’ of a candidate for ratings as they shower me with inauthentic praise and promises. Or, even worse, pretend to support a candidate (while pretending I don’t), just to keep the candidate coming on my show to inch (literally) up my ratings.”
Check out the video above.