‘Just winging it’: Morning Joe says Trump team’s sloppy defense in Stormy Daniels case could end his presidency

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said President Donald Trump and his legal team appear to "winging it" as they handle the myriad issues coming their way -- and that freelancing poses a real threat to his presidency.

The "Morning Joe" host marveled at the admission made on live TV this week by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's own lawyer about the non-disclosure agreement reached with adult film star Stormy Daniels, which could invalidate the pact and also serve as evidence of an illegal campaign contribution.

"Everybody's just winging it, everybody is just winging it," Scarborough said. "They're just going out talking, calling each other thugs, winging it inside the administration, outside the administration. That was the lawyer representing Michael Cohen in the Stormy Daniels claiming the president had no idea about the non-disclosure agreement."

He said attorney David Schwartz may have opened up new problems for the president and his longtime Trump Organization lawyer with his stunning admission.

"The potential fallout has become even more serious and people do, related to this lawsuit and this administration, just seem to go on TV and wing it and in this case," Scarborough said, "just playing it off the top of his head may have really cost -- or may have really undermined Donald Trump and Michael Cohen's best legal interest."

MSNBC legal analyst Jonathan Turley said Trump and his attorneys seem blind to the threat their lawsuit against Daniels poses to the president's interests.

"One of the things that confuses me about this, is why people on his team don't see that and why they're not acting," Turley said. "He needs to get out of the litigation. It should never have started. I mean, literally, they made every wrong move they could make. It's like a student who does worse than random selection on multiple choice answers -- it's almost a skill."

He said this civil matter could "metastasize" into a criminal matter if they're not careful.

"What's going to happen from this point on, the denial of (Trump's) knowledge is going to get Michael Cohen into what is already serious trouble with the New York Bar," Turley said. "But they now have to deal with the fact that a lawyer gave $130,000 to a porn star without ever getting the money back. The Justice Department has already said that can be a criminal matter. If Bob Mueller pulls the president in, as he can, to question him about it, you now have an existential threat to the administration."