Joe Scarborough Laughs at Sen. John Kennedy’s ‘Corn Pone’ Routine Asking Merrick Garland if He Is Racist

Joe Scarborough could not contain his laughter after watching a clip of Senator John Kennedy asking Judge Merrick Garland “Am I a racist?” during a Senate confirmation hearing that occurred Monday.

The Morning Joe segment opened with clips of Senators Josh Hawley and Kennedy asking Garland politically-charged yet simplistic questions about “defunding the police” and implicit bias, respectively, which Garland was able to parry quite easily, and even score some points with his rejoinders.

Over the past several weeks, Scarborough has repeatedly blamed Senator Hawley for the deadly insurrection that occurred on Jan. 6, a point which he makes in the segment above, but it was his open mockery of Senator Kennedy and his “cornpone routine” that stands out here.

“Every time John Kennedy, former Democrat, former John Kerry supporter, former Oxford grad opens his mouth, all those institutions weep,” Scarborough comedically lamented, referencing Senator Kennedy’s Democratic past and his time studying at Oxford University in England.

The Morning Joe host’s clear suggestion is that Kennedy’s homespun folksiness is a bit of a put-on designed to appeal to his Louisiana constituents, and belies his past as a sophisticated academic.

“That guy was doing everything but windsurfing in 2004 on Lake Pontchartrain,” Scarborough noted, referencing an iconic attack ad against John Kerry from 2004. “If he wants to ask if he’s a racist,” he continued, then “he really needs to take that back to the cloakroom and get on his knees wondering if he’s a racist or not.”

Scarborough also found time to ridicule the Missouri senator as well, saying that “It was a bit jarring to see Josh Hawley actually asking questions to anybody about what a crime is and what a crime is not when, I mean, he was guilty of inciting sedition against the United States government.”

Judge Garland appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday and faced questions regarding what looks like his inevitable tenure as the next Attorney General under President Joe Biden.

Watch above via MSNBC.