'Morning Joe': The 'frightening' way Trump fired Sally Yates was something an 'autocrat' would do

After the Trump administration fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates for her refusal to defend its executive order barring immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, it issued a statement calling her "very weak," while also slamming her for supposedly "betraying" the Justice Department.

On Morning Joe Tuesday morning, co-host Joe Scarborough argued that Trump had the right to fire Yates for her defiance, but he said the way that his administration trashed her on the way out the door was terrifying. Specifically, the administration's declaration that she had "betrayed" the DOJ seemed to really spook the MSNBC host.

"The word 'betrayed,' using the word betrayed for somebody, that’s frightening," Scarborough said. "That’s what an autocrat would use, whoever put that word in there."

Scarborough then emphasized that he did believe that Trump may have been in the right to fire Yates, but he said that the way that it was done was unlike anything he'd ever seen before in the United States.

"There are people that can have reasonable differences without saying that, if they don't agree with you, they've betrayed you," Scarborough said. "That is frightening, chilling language, whether they had a right to do this or not... But saying somebody ‘betrayed’ the Justice Department because they don’t agree with you? Take that to Venezuela, OK? We don’t really want to use that sort of language here. It’s time for you guys to grow up."

Check out the full segment below.