Morning Joe panel writes epitaph for Bill Clinton’s political career after disastrous Today interview

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski hammered former president Bill Clinton for his combative interview with "Today" co-anchor Craig Melvin.

The "Morning Joe" co-hosts ripped the former president for evading responsibility for his affair with a young intern that nearly ended his presidency, and they applauded their NBC News colleague for trying to hold Clinton accountable.

"If he wants to go out and campaign in 2018, which he should, do you own up to the fact that Monica Lewinski's life has been ruined, that you still have Juanita Broaddrick suffering what she went through," Scarborough said. "Do you own up to it, or do you continue to be Clintonesque and legalistic. Because I think people would forgive him if he said, 'I am so sorry and, yes, I need to call Monica ... but we still see this nagging Clintonian impulse, which again, as you said, allowed Trump supporters to say, 'Well, what about the Clintons.'"

Brzezinski said the former president's evasions created an environment where the current president's supporters can excuse anything by suggesting Clinton had gotten away with similar abuses.

"It has been for decades an unbelievable double standard that the Clintons have used and abused where nobody is allowed to go there on this issue, and in the age of 'Me Too,' women are supposed to go there -- and men, by the way," Brzezinski said. "We're supposed to be able to say what the difference is between right and wrong, and when you have done something wrong, you are supposed to own it and not talk about facts, distorted facts and obstructed facts."

"My god, he sounded like Trump," she added. "He sounded incapable of owning anything. To me, I was -- I've never been more moved by an interview, and I really appreciate that Craig Melvin asked those questions and put that entire interview to a stop and stayed with it, finally. Finally."

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt agreed that Clinton's evasions had essentially made President Donald Trump possible, but he said Monday's disastrous interview should be career ending for the former president.

"What you saw there, I think, is the end of Bill Clinton's life as a public figure in this country," Schmidt said. "Because of that interview, I don't think he's campaigning anywhere ever again unless he can clean it up and fix it pretty quickly."