‘This was the smoking gun!’ MSNBC’s Morning Joe explains why Mulvaney ‘confession’ could end Trump presidency

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had offered "smoking gun" evidence in a stunning confession to the crime at the heart of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.

The "Morning Joe" host said Mulvaney had made a stunning "confession," but he said the president had on the same day endorsed the ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish allies he had betrayed to Turkey.

"There's so much to talk about, we joke for a few minutes at the top of the show, Mika likes do that, me, I like to get straight into the news," said Scarborough, who frequently annoys his wife and co-host by bantering about sports at the start of the show. "But there's so much going on that if somebody just woke up this morning they might not think that yesterday was not one of the most significant news days in, during the Trump presidency, and I may even argue one of the most significant news days over perhaps the last decade, just in terms of volume."

"There was so much, so much -- so many shameful acts by the president as it had to do with lining up the Kurds for ethnic cleansing, kowtowing to the Turks," he continued.

"But I want to start with this Mick Mulvaney confession in the White House because it was -- it was a confession," he added, "and I will say it was like you had the Nixon tapes played out in front of the press for everyone to see, because this was the smoking gun."

Mulvaney, who also serves as the White House budget director, is a central figure in efforts to hold up congressionally approved aid to Ukraine while Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani sought campaign assistance from the foreign ally.

"This was the guy we had read weeks ago had held up the aid at the direction of the president of the United States," Scarborough said, "and yesterday he admitted military aid was held up from an ally who had been invaded by Vladimir Putin in return for chasing down presidential conspiracy theories and, of course, attached, though he didn't say it, (to) Hunter Biden."