Morning Joe host and former congressman Joe Scarborough reveals he is leaving the Republican party to become an Independent because he is 'disgusted' with GOP's blind loyalty of 'racist' Donald Trump
- Morning Joe host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough announced on The Late Show Tuesday that he's leaving the GOP
- Scarborough, who served in the House from 1995 to 2001, was once a favorite of President Trump
- 'I am a Republican but I'm not going to be a Republican anymore,' Scarborough told host Stephen Colbert. 'I've got to become an Independent'
- In late June, the president launched a personal attack against him and his fiancée Mika Brzezinski, who he said was 'bleeding badly from a facelift'
- He referred to Scarborough as 'crazy Joe' and Brzezinski as 'low-IQ crazy Mika'
- The duo scored their highest ratings ever when they addressed those tweets the following day on their show
MSNBC host and former GOP Congressman Joe Scarborough is leaving the Republican party because he is disgusted that 'time and time again it has 'turned a blind eye to racist Trump'.
Scarborough, 54, made the announcement during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as he was interviewed alongside his Morning Joe co-host and fiancee Mika Brzezinski.
Scarborough, who has come under tremendous criticism by The White House for turning on President Donald, said to rapturous applause from the audience: 'I am a Republican but I'm not gonna be a Republican anymore.
'I'm gonna become an Independent.'
During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Joe Scarborough announced that he is leaving the Republican Party
Morning Joe host and former Congressman Joe Scarborough has been explicit in his disapproval of President Trump
When Colbert asked the former congressman what he made of the Republican Party's seemingly unwavering support for the current president, Scarborough did not mince words.
'It's inexplicable,' he said. 'This is well before Donald Trump was elected president that my party betrayed their core values.
'In 2015 Donald Trump supported a Muslim Ban and I said I could never vote for somebody who was going to ban people based on the God they worshiped.
'Last February when he talked about David Duke and pretended that he didn't know who he was or what the Ku Klux Klan did, you didn't have Republicans coming out saying 'I can never support Donald Trump because he's racist!', they'd have a thousand other reasons why, but they always overlooked that.'
Scarborough who served as a Republican in Florida's 1st District from 1995 to 2001 said that he felt Trump's message was disturbing throughout the entire campaign.
'Time and time and time again, they (the Republican party) turned the other way and they're doing the same thing now. and it's actually disgusting,' he said.
Scarborough and Brzezinski, had been friendly toward President Trump during the 2016 election but have been increasingly critical of him since his inauguration.
'You have to ask yourself how far are the Republican party willing to go. How much of this country and our values are they willing to sell out?' Scarborough questioned, justifying his decision to make the move to become an Independent.
The former Republican congressman announced on The Late Show on Tuesday night that he’s leaving the GOP
President Donald Trump openly attacked the MSNBC host on Twitter just a few days before the July 4 holiday weekend
In February, he and Brzezinski banned Kellyanne Conway from their show.
It sparked a back-and-forth war of words online between the President and the show hosts, including accusations that Morning Joe was failing in the ratings.
Colbert opened the interview by asking Scarborough why Republicans still support President Trump.
But it didn't end there - in recent weeks, Scarborough and Brzezinski have been on the receiving end of further withering insults from the President's Twitter account.
Trump lashed out at the pair in a series of tweets, referring to them as 'Psycho Joe' and 'low-I.Q. Crazy Mika,' and claiming Brzezinski 'was bleeding badly from a face-lift' when he saw her last year at a New Years Eve party at Mar-A-Lago.
Shortly after the attack, Scarborough and Brzezinski told of how they were then threatened by White House staffers who would blackmail them by having the National Enquirer publish a damaging story about their off-air relationship if they didn't apologize to Trump.
The hosts reached their biggest audience ever when they talked about President Trump's tweets about their show late last month.
Nielsen reproted that 1.66 million people watched the MSNBC morning show the day after the tweets.
That narrowly beat the show's previous record, which came the day after President Trump was elected last year.
Attack: President Trump previously went after the pair in August of last year, threatening to divulge secrets about their relationship and calling them 'two clowns'
Kind words: He also referred to Brzezisnki as Scarborough's 'very insecure long-time girlfriend' and a 'neurotic and not very bright mess' in those tweets
President Trump previously went after the pair in August of last year, threatening to divulge secrets about their relationship and calling them 'two clowns.'
He also referred to Brzezisnki as Scarborough's 'very insecure long-time girlfriend' and a 'neurotic and not very bright mess' in those tweets.
The couple confirmed reports that they were engaged in an interview with Vanity Fair back in May, revealing that Scarborough popped the question while the two were in the South of France for Brzezinski's 50th birthday.
'His glasses were fogging up he was so nervous. I kept thinking he really must not have felt well,' Brzezinski said of her groom-to-be just before he got down on one knee outside the Hotel du Cap in Antibes.
Katherine and Jack are Scarborough's two children with Susan Warren, a former aide to Florida Governor Jeb Bush who he divorced in early 2014 after 11 years of marriage.
The popular morning host also has two adult sons, Joey and Andrew, from his first marriage to Melanie Hinton, which ended in 1999 after 13 years.
Brzezinski has two adult daughters, Emilie and Carlie, from her marriage to Jim Hoffer, which ended in 2016 after 23 years.
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