MSNBC host, and former Republican member of Congress, Joe Scarborough announced he is leaving the GOP during a taping of Tuesday's Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
.@JoeNBC announced that he's leaving #GOP to become an Independent. @StephenAtHome's full interview with Joe and @morningmika airs tonight! pic.twitter.com/OhLgXvYakH
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) July 11, 2017
"I'm not going to be a Republican anymore," Scarborough said. "I've got to become an independent."
The conservative pundit said the Republican Party "betrayed their core values" before Donald Trump won the 2016 election. Scarborough cited the paucity of Republicans who condemned Trump for racism during the campaign.
"Time and time and time again they turned the other way," Scarborough told Colbert. "And they're doing the same thing now. And it's actually disgusting. And you have to ask yourself, 'What exactly is the Republican Party willing to do? How far are they willing to go? How much of this country and our values are they willing to sell out?'"
Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski were recently involved in a public feud with President Trump on social media, in which the president made personal attacks on the MSNBC hosts.
In response to tweets calling them "Crazy Mika" and "Psycho Joe," Scarborough and Brzezinski wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post that questioned the president's mental health.
Scarborough noted on his show that even when he is the one criticizing Trump, the president focused his attacks on Brzezinski.
"He attacks women because he fears women," Scarborough said.
