MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough called out Republican hypocrisy on rioting after Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) floated the possibility of mass violence if Donald Trump was indicted.
The Department of Justice is investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, and “Morning Joe” host spent much of Monday’s program bashing Graham for suggesting rioting would be warranted if the former president faced prosecution.
“Yeah, you know, actually, he said he was off the Trump train, that he stepped off after Jan. 6, after those riots,” Scarborough said. “He cared about the riots until three people and a hound dog chased him in Washington National Airport, then he got right back on the train. It’s fascinating that he talks about riots. I don’t have a really good memory, I can’t remember, but I think we had riots on Jan. 6, and when you had leaders trying to get people like Lindsey Graham to support an investigation into those riots, he had no interest in that, had no interest in investigating those riots.”
“But now, he is worried about riots in the future, coming from Republicans, coming from his party, coming from Donald Trump supporters?” Scarborough continued. “Again, also, the irony is so rich, these people that talked about riots, Black Lives Matter riots, it’s all they talk about. Seriously, it acts as if there were no peaceful marches at all — riots, riots, it’s all they talk about. Yet they’re fine when Trump riots are actually putting democracy at risk, when they’re trying to overturn an election result. Lindsey is even fine threatening riots, saying, you know, Trump supporters will riot in the streets, there will be violence if he is held to account, if he broke the law.”
READ MORE: Trump added attorney named Jim Trusty to Mar-A-Lago legal team after seeing him on TV
Scarborough said those threats coming from GOP lawmakers were dangerous, and he warned Trump supporters they would suffer the same fate as Jan. 6 rioters if they took to the streets to commit violence to protest criminal prosecution.
“Lindsey, if you are trying to stir up Republican riots, if you think Republicans are going to riot in the street, Republicans are going to riot in the street, they’re not above the law,” he said. “They’ll be arrested. They’ll go through the same thing that people who listened to Donald Trump on Jan. 6 are going through. If you break the law, you’re held to account. If the answer to Republicans threatening violence on the FBI, the answer to Republicans threatening violence in the streets. It’s not backing down. It’s holding those people accountable, just like you hold Donald Trump accountable if they break the law.”
“If these Republicans were true leaders and the true focus was the United States of America and was serving our country, they would lead and say, when someone has done something wrong, when someone has threatened our democracy, when top-secret documents that threaten our nation and lives are being stolen from our U.S. government, from our country, one must be held to account,” Scarborough added.
Watch the video below or at this link.