On Thursday's Morning Joe on MSNBC, as the group freaked out over Republican Congressman Mark Meadows inviting a former Donald Trump employee, Lynne Patton, as evidence that President Trump does not treat minorities who work for him in a racist manner, MSNBC contributor Donny Deutsch decried Meadows as "racially retarded," and Al Sharpton, of all people, declared that President Trump is "obsessed" with race.
At 8:36 a.m. Eastern, after Sophia Nelson -- who used to be GOP counsel on the House Oversight Committee --went on a rant against Republicans on the issue, Deutsch took a shot at Congressman Meadows as he began his commentary:
Joe, I just want to go back to something you said as a little side bar that I think is so crucial and we could spend a week on when we were talking about that Meadows absurdity -- debacle -- racially retarded -- that's probably the wrong word, racially ignorant -- here's this black woman. If we're going to have discussions about race, we have to talk about the gambit of racism. There is racial hate and racial superiority, and then there's racial ignorance.
After arguing that Congessman Meadows probably does not have "hate in his heart," the liberal MSNBC contributor added: "What he did and the fact that he was defending it is so obscene and so absurd -- that's not hate, that's ignorance."
Sharpton jumped in and suggested there is a difference between "insensitivity" and "bigotry," and then brought up President Trump's recent criticism of film maker Spike Lee's comments at the Oscars hinting that Trump represents "hate" without actually saying the President's name. Sharpton complained:
Trump is obsessed with race. Spike Lee makes an acceptance speech and says, "Do the right thing in 2020." Trump hears race. He didn't even mention race. But when you're so obsessed with race that anybody that is black or brown talks at all, you see race.
Sharpton ignored the fact that Spike Lee has a history of attacking Trump publicly, deriding him as "Agent Orange," and was clearly referring to Trump when he used the word "hate" in his acceptance speech.
For her part, co-host Mika Brzezinski complained that Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was pressured by chairman Elijah Cummings to apologize for suggesting that Congressman Meadows was behaving in a "racist" manner by inviting Patton to appear. Brzezinski: "And Rashida Tlaib should not have apologized. The wrong person apologized in that side show.... And I'm really, really frustrated that she was the one who ended up apologizing for what happened."
