The Morning Joe crew was discussing Pastor Burns’ Hillary Clinton blackface tweet, subsequent apology-but-not-to-Hillary-Clinton, deletion, then second blackface tweet, deletion, and apology when Robinson made his assessment:
Eugene Robinson: That guy is nuts, okay? Mark Burns.Joe Scarborough: Now you’re being a bigot. You don’t like him because he’s black.Eugene Robinson: You got me there, Joe. You got me there.Joe Scarborough: It’s like a Klan rally here. Why don’t you like him?Eugene Robinson: Because he’s out of his mind.Joe Scarborough: What are you talking about?Mika Brzezinski: Don’t you feel sorry for him?Joe Scarborough: What do you mean he’
s out of his mind? Just because he supports Trump?Eugene Robinson: It’s not just that he supports Trump. Basically everything he said. Am I wrong here?Mika Brzezinski: I just asked him a basic yes, no question and you all went after him aggressively and I was accused — the whole thing is kind of pathetic. It’s not worth any more oxygen.
For context, Pastor Burns was a guest on Morning Joe last week, where co-host Mika Brzezinski pressed Burns for an answer by repeatedly interrupting him, a performance which earned a demand for an apology from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. What followed in that segment was not aggressive questioning by the MJ panel, but a discussion of education policy between Pastor Burns and Reverend Al Sharpton.