Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski argued about President Obama's failure to close Guantanamo Bay and his decision to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed before a military commission, instead of in civilian court.
Speaking on Tuesday's "Morning Joe," Scarborough accused Obama of hypocrisy. The president, he said, had "suggested that George Bush wasn't a good American, that he was subverting American principles...if I think something is evil and anti-American, when I'm President of the United States...I'm going to end it. Unless I didn't mean it during the campaign."
Brzezinski took issue with these remarks. "You're making it sound like this president's entire philosophy and moral compass is completely now turned over, and isn't what it appears to be," she said.
"I had to sit here for a year-and-a-half having people come on this set saying Barack Obama is holy and George Bush and Dick Cheney are evil because they supported military tribunals," he said. "I took that for a year-and-a-half. So if you have to sit here for a morning--"
"Do you think this president, Joe Scarborough, would have opened Gitmo?" Brzezinski said. "No," he replied. "It's impossible potentially to close it," she continued. Scarborough cut in.
"If it's evil and it's wrong you stop it and he promised--"
"Oh please," Brzezinski interrupted, rolling her eyes. She went on to say that Obama's failure to close Guantanamo "does not change his fundamental outlook, moral compass and philosophy."
Scarborough stressed that he agreed with the decision to try Mohamed at Guantanamo, saying, "this man does not deserve the same constitutional rights that Americans have fought and died for for the last two centuries." But he added that he was "not going to allow this president and everybody else to let the parade roll by after listening to them beat their chests in self-righteous indignation like Jim and Tammy Faye Baker for two years."
Their argument went on for about five more minutes.
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