'Every Republican knows': Morning Joe shames GOP for rubber stamping Trump moves

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Republican lawmakers know that Donald Trump's nominee is unqualified to lead the FBI, especially after last weekend's purge of agents who had worked on criminal cases against the president and the Jan. 6 rioters.

The Trump administration forced out FBI officials and agents who had worked on the Mar-a-Lago and Jan. 6 investigations just one day after Kash Patel, the president's nominee to lead the agency, was specifically asked by lawmakers about removing those investigators and committed to honoring the internal review process for the bureau.

"I am here to say, and I speak only for myself, that if you have an FBI director that furthers these purges, that is a win for al Qaeda," Scarborough said. "If you're gutting the FBI, that I guarantee you, whether it's you want to call it a win or not, they are cheering this happening. ISIS is cheering this happening, China is cheering that this has happened, Russia is cheering that this is happening, Iran is cheering that this has happened."

Democratic lawmakers raised concern about the purges over the weekend, pointing out that Patel and attorney general nominee Pam Bondi had already affirmed during their confirmation hearings that they would not seek vengeance against Trump's enemies, but Scarborough said GOP lawmakers shared those same concerns.

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"Every single Republican senator knows that to be the case," Scarborough said. "The question is, are they going to get an FBI director who is more concerned about going after criminal gangs in America, going after murderers in America, going after al Qaeda or ISIS or Islamic terrorists who want to blow things up in America, or domestic terrorists that want to blow things up in America, or who's going to be looking inward at the FBI, trying to conduct political purges?"

"Every Republican knows what they need in that position as FBI director after this weekend especially," he added. "The question is, are they going to do anything about it?"

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