'Morning Joe' analyzes whether Trump is 'truly evil,' Deutsch says comments on political dirt 'demented'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday moved past merely bashing President Trump and started analyzing just how bad he has been.
Host Joe Scarborough introduced a discussion about whether Trump was evil or just destructive. He asked guest Donny Deutsch whether a "truly evil" president would be as open with the media as Trump has been.
His comments came after the president told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he would be willing to listen if a foreign government possessed dirt on a political opponent, potentially without reporting it to the FBI.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Wouldn't a truly evil guy have said to George Stephanopoulos, 'of course I would report it. I would report it instantly, in fact, do you know what, I've hired three lawyers and they're going to be scanning throughout the entire government. We're going to have the toughest task force on foreign interference ever' while he's actually calling China and calling Russia?" Scarborough asked.
Deutsch chimed in, calling Trump "demented" since he didn't see anything wrong with obtaining foreign opposition research. "You could almost say is he evil or is there just no moral compass?" Deutsch asked.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Co-host Mika Brzezinski pushed back on the idea that she saw Trump as "evil."
"My reaction to what happened the other night when he said that to George Stephanopoulos was this is horrendous, horrendous for our democracy. He is a national security threat and what he does is not stupidity, what he does is not evil ... what he does is he manipulates the truth," she said.
"He desensitizes the American public and the world to what is right and wrong and does things in plain sight and the results are evil." She added that Trump was engaging in the type of slow degradation of values that often preceded dictatorships.
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Brzezinski, on Thursday, shamed Republicans for not standing up to Trump after his comments to Stephanopoulos. "Republicans are being #cowards and #enablers. This president is a national security threat. Get a backbone," she tweeted.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends" Friday, the president sought to clarify the controversial comments, while arguing the heat should really be on Democrats for the alleged spying on his 2016 campaign. He seemed to say he'd report it to the FBI, at least if he sensed something was wrong.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"If I thought anything was incorrect or badly stated, I'd report it to the attorney general, the FBI, I'd report it to law enforcement absolutely," he said.