The hosts of “Morning Joe” ended a Thursday morning interview with Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) when he repeatedly declined to answer questions about Donald Trump’s comment Wednesday night that “Islam hates us.”
“You’re a friend of Donald Trump. Would you tell your friend Donald Trump that he should walk back his statements that Muslims — Islam hates America, that Islam hates us? Do you think Muslims in the state of Florida hate America?” co-host Joe Scarborough asked Scott.
“Well, as you know in Florida, we’re the best melting pot in the world. We love everybody coming to our state,” Scott said in response. “After the Paris bombings, I did ask the federal government to not allow any more Syrian refugees to come into Florida until we vetted them. The government’s not vetting them. But that’s what my concern is.”
Scarborough noted that he did not asked about Scott’s policies on Syrian refugees and asked Scott, “I’m just asking generally, do you think that Muslims hate Americans, that Islam hates America, as Donald Trump said last night?”
The Florida governor again avoided Trump’s comments and started talking about “what’s going on in Florida.”
Both Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski objected to Scott’s answer before he could finish.
“I don’t want to know what’s going on in Florida,” Scarborough said. “I want you to answer the question. Do you personally think that Islam as a religion that hates America?”
“So, Joe, what I can tell you in our state, is we have a lot of Muslims that live in our state. We have a lot of Latin Americans that live in our state. We all get along. We love people moving to our state and coming here as tourists,” Scott responded. “Donald Trump, you know, he can talk about the things he wants to talk about.”
“No, no,” Brzezinski said in response. “That’s not answering any questions.”
“Can you answer the question or should we scoot?” she then asked.
Scott said that he’s happy to have Republicans in the state for Thursday night’s debate, and the “Morning Joe” co-hosts ended the interview there.
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