'It was very scary': Morning Joe panel highlights worst parts of Trump's NYC rally
MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski condemned the "unbelievably degrading" statements made by Donald Trump and his allies at a rally in New York City.
Speaker after speaker used crude, hateful and violent rhetoric at the packed event Sunday at Madison Square Garden, and "Morning Joe" panelists expressed their disgust — and rejected Trump campaign statements that tried to distance itself from some of the speakers.
Among the speakers was comedian Tony Hinchcliffe drew laughs by referring to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage."
"I think those comments that were made by the comedian really cut through about Puerto Rico," said Brzezinski. "So unbelievably degrading this event was to immigrants and to human beings who live in this country as free American citizens or legal immigrants."
The Rev. Al Sharpton pointed out that no following speakers, including the former president, criticized that or other offensive remarks.
"What was so striking to me is that this comedian said this early in the night and no one got up, including Donald Trump, and denounced what he said," Sharpton said.
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"There was a statement released later by the campaign. How do you let someone get on the stage and say something like that and no one refutes it, as people in the audience laughed and cheered about it? I got calls all night because we work very closely with Puerto Rican leadership. It reminded a lot of them of when Donald Trump was president and there was a real big storm that had destroyed part of Puerto Rico. He went down and threw towels at them, so it was consistent with what he said."
"But let's also go to what Donald Trump himself said last night, that some of the Black men groups that I've been debating about why they can't be with Trump, he said, 'I could be laying out in the beach with my white, white skin getting tanned,'" Sharpton added. "I mean, this is Donald Trump's mouth saying this.
"So I said to those on the fence, this is not a real racial signal? My pretty white, beautiful white, white skin? Donald Trump said this last night at his homecoming, so when people said that this was like reminiscent of the supremacist rally in 1939, the Nazis – I think that it lived up to that."
"It was very scary," Brzezinski added.
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