MSNBC's Morning Joe warns Lindsey Graham and other GOP candidates are 'walking into a trap'

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough ripped Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for lying about blocking President Barack Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Graham opposed Merrick Garland's nomination in 2016 because the election was just months away, but the "Morning Joe" host called out that reasoning as a lie after the South Carolina Republican signaled support for President Donald Trump nominating a justice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg weeks away from the election.

"Lindsey is not deconstructing language there," Scarborough said. "Lindsey's not engaging in moral equivocation. Lindsey is just lying, and he's lying openly."

Scarborough said that push to replace Ginsburg before the election carried explosive risks for Republicans like Graham, who's facing a tough challenger in Jaime Harrison.

"If you say to the people, I know you're not going to agree with this, I know you're not going to like this, this is where I stand, if you don't like it vote against me," Scarborough said. "I did that all the time and the closest anybody got to me in a general election race was 62 percent to 38 percent, and I was the first Republican elected in my district since Reconstruction. People don't like when Lindsey lies to their face and it's on tape, and he thinks Donald Trump can get away with this, so I can get away with it. But Donald Trump hasn't gotten away with this."

"Republicans were crushed in 2017 and local and state and national elections," he added. "Republicans were crushed in 2018, the largest vote landslide in the history of midterm elections. Republicans fared horribly in gubernatorial races in 2019, and 2020 is not looking any better, and they keep acting this way. You go back to the question on why the second I heard this news I thought, uh-oh for Republicans. This isn't going to go well for Republicans and they're going to walk right into the trap."