MIKA BRZEZINSKI (CO-HOST): Here's Paul Ryan. Now he's pretending to be, and I'm going to go there and just say it, there's no other way to put it. He is pretending to be surprised about this, and then listen to Mitch McConnell when he's asked a simple question that I just asked on the set. Is this racism?
[...]
JOE SCARBOROUGH (CO-HOST) It's a racist statement.
BRZEZINSKI: What's wrong with him?
SCARBOROUGH: It's a racist statement.
BRZEZINSKI: Can't answer anything here on the set. Can't answer anything on Meet the Press. What's wrong with him?
SCARBOROUGH: Mark Halperin, Newt Gingrich came out and actually hammered --
MARK HALPERIN: A guy who wants to be on the ticket, publicly went out. This is, in the history of the country, it is one of the most un-American and bigoted things that anyone has said, and that is why he's being denounced by everyone. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, Newt Gingrich, who has a history of saying divisive things. Trump may think this is a brilliant way to triangulate or something, but it is so wrong that he is being condemned across the board. I think these Republicans hoped that somehow when he became the presumptive nominee that he would change his ways and move more towards the center. To say these things about a judge, an actual judge, and then a hypothetical Muslim judge, when there's no political upside to it whatsoever, is, it's astounding. And they're as upset by the political absurdity of it as they are by how horrible the things he's said are. It's un-American, for what he's said. And if he doesn't change it quick, I think a lot of the donors are going to give up on it.
SCARBOROUGH: I think, also, Paul Ryan has to back off.
BRZEZINSKI: Just take it back. Anything goes in this election.
SCARBOROUGH: For instance, Paul Ryan said this was out of left field. No, it wasn't out of left field. Paul Ryan held a press conference saying how upset he was that Donald Trump was so bigoted towards Muslims that he was going to ban 1.4 billion Muslims from entering the United States of America. Donald Trump called this guy a Mexican and said he might be disqualified, before Paul Ryan endorsed him.
