Morning Joe hosts call out GOP on Trump: 'We’re talking about the sanctity of our constitution'

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough expressed alarm over President Donald Trump's continuing attacks on the judiciary branch over his controversial travel ban.

Trump has tweeted insults against "so-called judges" who handed him temporary defeats, suggested those judges would be to blame for future terrorist attacks and lashed out Wednesday at "biased" and "political" courts during a speech to law enforcement officers.

Scarborough, a former Republican lawmaker who has been criticized for his apparently close relationship to Trump, slammed the president's remarks as "disgraceful" and called on GOP elected officials to speak up.

“Some of the dangerous autocrats of the 20th century, their two goals were to, first, undermine an independent judiciary, and, second, to undermine a free press,” the "Morning Joe" host said. "This crosses a bright, bright line that conservatives in my party need to start talking about and need to start pushing back on."

"But for him to say all of the things that he said (Wednesday), again, deeply disturbing because he keeps talking about how they’re political and he is trying to set them up for blame if there is a terror attack, which there is absolutely positively no evidence that we are facing an eminent threat right now," he continued.

Neil Gorsuch, a federal judge and Trump's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, reportedly told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that the president's attacks on the judiciary were "demoralizing" and "disheartening."

Later in the segment, co-host Mika Brzezinski sounded her own alarm over Trump's disdain for constitutional checks on executive power.

"We’re talking about the sanctity of our constitution," Brzezinski said. "He’s speaking in a way that could threaten the very foundation of our constitution, and I’m not overstating it. I have to wonder what position Republicans in the House and Senate are going to have."

Trump takes on courts over immigration… @JoeNBC: Presidents do not speak this way https://t.co/eO85dwX1nj

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) February 9, 2017