Watch: MSNBC's Symone Sanders Townsend snaps back as Joe Scarborough defends Trump

"Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough faced some fierce resistance from MSNBC colleague Symone Sanders Townsend after he defended Donald Trump's plan to take over the Washington, D.C, police force with an emergency declaration.

After Scarborough and his panel spent much of the morning claiming they believe the city has serious crime problems, despite statistics showing crime is on the decline, Sanders Townsend pushed back — and then lectured Scarborough after he alluded that she is part of the "defund the police" movement.

Things began to get heated after Sanders Townsend claimed, "We are really adding to the fearmongering, in my opinion, and amping up the rhetoric when we should be tamping it down, because Donald Trump has given us rhetoric and not the reality."

"You don't think more police make streets safer?" Scarborough replied.

"No, Joe, I'm a Black woman in America. I do not always think that more police make streets safer," she shot back. "When you walk down the streets of Georgetown, you don't see a police officer on every corner, but you don't feel unsafe. So what is it about talking about places like Southeast CDC, right? Ward 8, if you will, that people say, 'Well, we need more officers to make us safe.' I think we have to rethink what safety means in America."

"Well, you know, there have been Black city council members in New York City when people were talking about defunding the police, saying the people we represent are the people who need police officers the most, as safety officers and schools need police officers the most, so our children can walk from their homes to school without without being stopped, you know, five, ten times by drug dealers or people that are going to assault them," Scarborough protested.

He then added, "I just, I don't, I don't think this is an issue of Black versus white when you come, when you're talking about safety, there are a lot of Black Americans who don't feel safe in their homes, in their neighborhoods. And when they hear people talking about defunding the police, it freaks them out."

"I'm not saying that the police are not good, I never supported defund," Sanders Townsend pushed back. 'I think you're making a good point, Joe. I want to be able to call the police in my neighborhood, and when they come, I don't want them to think that I'm a suspect."

Reinforcing her earlier point, as Scarborough attempted to talk over her, she continued, "But what we are talking about is that the president of the United States is saying that there is a crime emergency in Washington, D.C. An emergency could be anything that he says it is."

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