On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Donny Deutsch responded to President Trump’s tweets about two of the show’s hosts, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, by saying he would take the low road and calling President Trump not mentally well and “physically disgusting to look at.”
Deutsch began the segment wearing sunglasses and joking that it was because he’d had some work done and was self-conscious about it.
Deutsch then said that he wasn’t surprised by the tweets before stating, “First of all, he picked the wrong schoolyard to come into. I have to tell you this, I’m not an employee of NBC. So, I can — I’m going to go thug here, okay. I’m sorry. Because Mika’s a friend of ours. She’s a good woman. She’s a great mom. And he’s a pig. He’s a vulgar pig. And I find what’s ironic about — you know, Michelle Obama says when they go high — ‘When they go low, we go high.’ When he goes low, I’m going low. You guys will take the high road. I’m going to take the low road. He’s physically disgusting to look at. I mean, that’s what I find ironic about the way he starts to always go after other people’s physical attributes. So, beyond the fact that he’s obviously not well, and Joe and Mika have a great column on it. He’s clearly — forget, obviously, the obvious [mysogyny], the obvious vulgarity, the obvious stupidity, he’s not mentally okay. … We have to start paying attention to it, and he’s disgusting to look at.”
Fellow panelists Katty Kay and Elise Jordan objected that what Deutsch said was irrelevant. Deutsch countered that it wasn’t because “enough is enough. Enough is enough with this disgusting, vulgar man. And to talk about women that way, and the irony is that, you physically look like you do, beyond the stupidity of it, you’re a pig, you are a bully, and you are doing disgusting things to this country.”
Willie Geist, one of the show’s co-hosts asked Deutsch if the comments about Trump’s physical appearance lowered the discourse. Deutsch responded, “It absolutely does. And maybe it’s time that we all stop tippy-toeing. I’m taking the low ground here. You know what? He goes after a woman that way, he goes after a friend that way, he is a vulgar human being. He’s vulgar to look at. He’s disgusting the way he behaves himself, as the president. And I’m sorry, I probably won’t be on this show again, but, sorry.”
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