MSNBC's Mika blasts Trump for 'droplet-spraying' visit with donors knowing he was exposed to COVID-19

MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski blasted President Donald Trump for going ahead with a New Jersey fundraiser despite showing symptoms of the coronavirus.

The New York Times reported the president was lethargic at the fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club, and the "Morning Joe" co-host was astonished by his careless disregard for even his own supporters.

"[Reporters were] talking about some impromptu photo ops he was taking with people, his trip to Bedminster," Brzezinski said. "He did a roundtable and reportedly delivered a droplet-spraying speech. He was interacting with people with knowledge that he was exposed."

Host Joe Scarborough said the president knew that his senior aide Hope Hicks had tested positive before going ahead with the event.

"The president, obviously, knew about Hope Hicks, knew she was positive, still went up to this fundraiser and still was in close quarters with many of his supporters even after knowing this," he said. "It really does show a recklessness, not just politically but also personally."

Panelist David Ignatius agreed, saying the president's positive test revealed how faulty his response had been to the pandemic.

"He had other people's health in his hands, as it were, and I think anybody who goes over these facts would ask, was the president behaving irresponsibly?" Ignatius said. "He has tried to carry himself as if he's a kind of superman that doesn't wear a mask, you know, implies at every stop, it's only the weak people who are worried about this. It's going to go away, it's not that big a deal, and now he's been brought low by it. You can try to manage and manipulate the news, but you know what? You can't manage the virus. The virus ended up being stronger than all these efforts to minimize it and say it was going away, and here it is. So I think that really does shape the way all of us are going to think about the remaining days of the campaign."

"This is the October surprise," he added. "It is. This is the black swan that descends. You couldn't have imagined this, really, and here it is."