MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough on Tuesday suggested Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and their MAGA allies are shedding “crocodile tears” over their latest efforts to unseat Jimmy Kimmel from his late night show.
Kimmel found himself taking heat from the president once again after a joke he made about the first lady last week — saying she was glowing “like an expectant widow” — was seized upon by the first couple and fellow conservatives following Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The comedian pushed back on the criticism Monday, describing the line as “a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am.”
“It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination,” Kimmel added.
Scarborough said the backlash from Trump and his allies amounted to “such crocodile tears from people who have sat back and said absolutely nothing” when the president has made highly divisive remarks about political foes being executed and more.
“It’s happened time and time again. So, again, crocodile tears there,” he added.
While Scarborough acknowledged he “wouldn’t have said something like that about any president,” he argued Kimmel’s joke was clearly about the age gap between Trump and his wife and not sinister.
“So, again, the crocodile tears are a bit too much,” he said. “Even for those of us who would never say something like that or want anybody else to make a joke like that. But it was, at the end of the day, a joke about his age and not violent rhetoric.”
Watch Scarborough’s commentary here: