JOE SCARBOROUGH (CO-HOST): [Putin] is doing a better job that Obama is. That is breathtaking. Mark Halperin, it's not just about the 33,000 e-mails, as we’ve said. Was he also joking about looking into Crimea and recognizing the invasion of Crimea and sanctioning it Was he just joking when he was asked point blank if he would tell Vladimir Putin to stay out of this election, this American election, and he refused to do that? Too many statements just to pass off as “I was just joshing.”
[…]
JOHN HEILEMANN: Until he offers a full-throated denunciation of Putin, both in terms of the specifics of this data breach and more broadly, the questions will linger and persist.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI (CO-HOST): But he won’t.
SCARBOROUGH: He said, though, John, that a man who assassinates journalists --
HEILEMANN: I know.
SCARBOROUGH: And assassinates political leaders --
HEILEMANN: This is my point.
SCARBOROUGH: That get in his way is a better leader than Barack Obama. Hey, I didn't like the Affordable Care Act either. But guess what, he didn't shoot people at The Washington Post or the The New York Times. That statement in and of itself is so beyond the pale, it is disqualifying. At this moment in time, if you are a conservative Republican, if you are a liberal Democrat, if you are an American. He needs to backtrack.
