Cokie Roberts Calls Trump Supporters 'Morally Tainted'

"You can’t say, 'He’s a racist and what he says is textbook racism, but I support him because he’s the nominee of my party,'" the legendary journalist said.

Cokie Roberts didn’t mince words Tuesday in describing GOP politicians who continue supporting Donald Trump despite serious misgivings.

“They’re morally tainted,” the NPR and ABC political commentator told Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“I mean there’s just no question about that. You can’t say, ‘He’s a racist and what he says is textbook racism, but I support him because he’s the nominee of my party.’”

Of course, conservative groups took umbrage. Fox News wrote that Roberts made no mention of “possible ethical dilemmas facing backers of Hillary Clinton.” The Daily Wire called Roberts’ comments a “typical display of leftist hypocrisy.”

In the edited footage above, Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, said that people in general are acknowledging that he’s a “racist” and “con man” but still embracing him.

“Nobody’s ever seen anything like this,” responded Roberts, whose parents were elected to Congress as Democrats in Louisiana. “Not only did I grow up in politics, I grew up in the Jim Crow South. And we spent the last 50 years trying to bring people together instead of push people apart. And so that becomes a terrible stain on the country.”

Roberts has been a fierce critic of Trump. In March NPR had to clarify her commentator role after she co-wrote a column asking “the rational wing” of the Republican Party to stop his march to the presidential nomination.

It looks like she’s not letting up.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney

Republicans Who Have Refused To Back Donald Trump

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