'What is wrong with him?': 'Morning Joe' hosts rip Sean Spicer for scolding a reporter
MSNBC
The hosts of "Morning Joe" ripped into White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Wednesday for scolding a reporter.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Spicer told American Urban Radio Networks' April Ryan to stop shaking her head and that she was "going to have to take 'no' for an answer" when she pressed about how the administration was reacting to the investigations into Russia's involvement in the 2016 presidential election.
"What is wrong with him?" Mika Brzezinski said after playing the clip, adding later that Spicer was a "complete shill."
"This is not a first-grade class," Joe Scarborough said. "That was just simply beyond the pale."
Scarborough agreed with the show's panelists that Spicer did not seem to have the temperament for the job, pointing to former press secretaries Mike McCurry and Tony Snow as models.
"You just don't have to be abusive," Scarborough said. "And in that situation ... I've never heard anyone be as condescending from that position and abusive for accusing someone of doing something they weren't even doing."
The "Morning Joe" hosts said Spicer should have resigned after President Donald Trump screamed at Spicer, they said, "for being too weak" during his first press briefing, in which Spicer falsely declared that Trump's inauguration had "the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period."
Though Trump is a longtime "Morning Joe" viewer and has known the two hosts for years, their relationship appears to have hit a rough patch since he took office. Both Brzezinski and Scarborough have been increasingly critical of some administration figures and policy decisions.