Morning Joe panel brutally dismantles Lindsey Graham for doubling down and backing Trump's extreme racism

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough was left speechless by Sen. Lindsey Graham's impassioned defense of President Donald Trump's racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen.

The "Morning Joe" host sat in stunned silence after rolling video of the South Carolina Republican defending Trump's tweets, and doubling down by hurling his own slurs against the first-year lawmakers.

"You call Americans in Congress communists?" Scarborough said, after gathering his thoughts, "and you say they hate America? And then your punch line to that is aim higher?"

Scarborough, who served alongside Graham as a Republican congressman, said the episode was a shameful new low for the veteran lawmaker.

"It might be a good time to remind people watching that Lindsey Graham is not a back bencher in the House like he was when I knew him and he pretended to be conservative," Scarborough said. "Lindsey Graham is now the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I've got to say that tirade yesterday, that's not just a new low point for Lindsey Graham. That may be a new low point for the Republican Party under Donald Trump."

Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, agreed that Graham had been corrupted by his association with the president.

"Hypocrisy has no greater friend than Graham," Steele said, "and I think he's proven that more and more, certainly since the passing of John McCain. He needed something to latch onto and he's latched on Trumpism and all of its ilk and forms."