‘Morning Joe’ defends Trump’s boorish behavior by claiming he’s been victim of worse sex harassment

The New York Times over the weekend published an exhaustively reported expose detailing how presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has treated women over the years. Among many other things, Trump would constantly make comments about women's figures during meetings and once he even knocked the woman who oversaw the construction of his Manhattan business headquarters for gaining weight.

While these stories have drawn condemnation from many women across the country, including many conservative women, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough went to bat for Trump on Monday morning to defend his boorish behavior.

After reading through the entire lengthy article, Scarborough said he only found two examples of bad behavior on Trump's part. The first one was when Trump met a young beauty pageant contestant for the first time and greeted her by kissing her directly on the lips.

"He kissed me directly on the lips," said Temple Taggart, who in 1997 was a contestant in the Miss Universe pageant. "I thought, 'Oh my God, gross.' He was married to Marla Maples at the time. I think there were a few other girls that he kissed on the mouth. I was like 'Wow, that’s inappropriate.'"

Scarborough, however, didn't seem to think this was so bad.

"I will tell you, that's not a pleasant thing," he said. "[But] in the thousands and thousands and thousands of receptions I've had before, people have come up, women have come up, of all ages, and kissed me on the lips. I don't like it, I wish they wouldn't have, but I wouldn't run to The New York Times."

Second, Scarborough made light of the story told in the Times about Trump asking a then-26-year-old model to try on a bathing suit for him within minutes of meeting her at one of his pool parties. The woman said that after she tried on the bikini, Trump "brought me out to the pool and said, 'That is a stunning Trump girl, isn’t it?'"

Scarborough completely neglected to mention that he referred to her as "a Trump girl" and instead implied that Trump only politely complimented her on her appearance. And of course, his male guests Mike Barnicle and Mark Halperin both agreed that this story was completely innocuous.

Check out the whole segment for yourself below.