'Sick and grotesque': Trump's comments about Black voters leveled by Morning Joe panel

Panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" busted Donald Trump for suggesting Black voters liked him more because he had been indicted.

The former president claimed Friday at a campaign event in South Carolina that Black voters related to his mugshot and 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions, and the Rev. Al Sharpton started off by explaining why his remarks were so insulting.

"Let's be clear, Donald Trump is using the stereotype of Blacks being criminals and, therefore, we would gravitate towards somebody in a mugshot," Sharpton said. "He's in a mugshot for trying to interfere with an election, Blacks were arrested to get the right to vote. That's what the marches were about. It is the epitome of an insult, also, when you think of the fact that it is a Black man that is prosecuting him in Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, a black woman in Georgia, a Black woman, the New York state attorney general, Letitia James. He's saying Black people would relate to someone indicted for trying to undermine the elections by Blacks, but we would go with him rather than them?"

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"The other part of this that is so amazing is Donald Trump himself has been part of these kinds of unfair prosecutions of Blacks," Sharpton added. "It was he that took out ads in newspapers calling for the death penalty of five young Black and brown boys of raping a white woman in Central Park who went to jail falsely. It was later proven they didn't do it because of the DNA. Donald Trump said, no, punish them anyway. All of a sudden -- I've been in this movement for 40, 50 years. I've never seen him stand up for Blacks that were treated wrong by the criminal justice system. Now, he's a symbol of being persecuted? He is being persecuted by Black prosecutors, a Black woman judge in the federal court in Washington, D.C., and shameless Blacks are standing there applauding him. They need to check the facts."

Host Joe Scarborough pointed out that Trump used racist language against the Black law enforcement officials involved in his criminal and civil cases.

"He is also making racist comments against Letitia James, against Fani Willis, against those prosecutors that happen to be people of color, just because they're Black," Scarborough said. "I guess he didn't -- maybe they didn't fit that into his speech."

Trump presents himself as a victim of persecution, comparing himself to the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and Black Americans who had been unfairly prosecuted because of racism.

"First it was Navalny, now it's the African-American community," said co-host Mika Brzezinski. "These comparisons are sick and grotesque."

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