MSNBC's Joe Scarborough called BS on the "double standard" that's keeping Donald Trump and his allies out of jail for violating court rules in his hush money trial.
New York justice Juan Merchan cleared the courtroom to admonish attorney Robert Costello, who had angered the judge for making comments and facial expressions indicating his disagreement with rulings, and the "Morning Joe" host said that anyone else would have already been held in contempt and thrown in jail.
"He's playing like the clowns behind him that all come in with their cyborg red ties to an audience of one," Scarborough said, referring to Republican lawmakers and politicians showing their support to Trump at the courthouse. "That makes his disrespectfulness toward the judge, far more importantly toward the court, the court system itself, all the more maddening, and why if he were to do it again, he needs to be sent to jail. He needs to be sent to jail immediately."
The judge has found the former president in contempt 10 times, fined him $1,000 for each violation and threatened him with jail, but Trump continues to attack Merchan and Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg on social media, although they are not covered under the gag order.
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"Just let's take a step back," Scarborough said. "Judge Merchan has had to show restraint while every day you have a defendant going out and attacking him personally, suggesting that he's corrupt, suggesting that the court system is rigged, making it extraordinarily personal toward him and members of his family. I suppose – and I wouldn't do it. I don't care who the defendants were if I were the judge, they're going to jail. I would bring them in shackles day in and day out. I don't care if it were a Democrat, a Republican, whether it was a steel worker, a teacher, or the president of the United States. You have to respect the judge because the judge represents the judicial system. I understand the balancing act that this judge is in the middle of, but you take everything in its totality. Maybe it is harder to send a former president to jail for contempt when any other American, any other American would be sent to jail."
"This double standard stuff, that somehow Donald Trump is on the wrong end of the double standard, is just, as Aristotle used to say when debating Socrates, bulls--t, rank bulls--t," Scarborough added. "There are two standards – Donald Trump benefits from the double standards every single time. Now the defendant's witnesses are doing the same. Again, I've never seen this. I've never seen this before in a court from a witness, because if I did, well, you'd see the back of them going to jail. The next morning, they would be wearing orange."
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