Senior MSBNC reporter Mike Barnicle Friday linked President Donald Trump’s use of a tanning bed with his “irrational rants” that include musing about people injecting a disinfectant to avoid the coronavirus.
The veteran journalist made the connection during an appearance on “Morning Joe” when host Joe Scarborough asked Barnicle about Trump’s disinfectant comment, “What’s going through the minds of Republican senators and Republican members of Congress and Republicans who serve with this president?”
“Well, Joe, in a rational, political world, of which we are not part — we’re no longer a part of that, there is no longer a rational political world around us — I’ll tell you what might be on their minds: the 25th Amendment,” he said, citing that part of the Constitution that allows for the removal of a president if he is unable to “discharge his duties.” (RELATED: Vice President Mike Pence Slams Allegation He Would Use 25th Amendment Against Trump: ‘Appalling’)
“Because yesterday,” Barnicle continued, “the President of the United States actually posed a threat to public safety, to the public safety of the citizens of this country. Those are the musings of a man who has spent a whole lot of his lifetime in a tanning bed. So he’s been exposed to ultraviolet rays in order to look like he has a tan all the time,” he said without explanation.
The frequent “Morning Joe” guest described Trump’s statements at Thursday’s coronavirus task force news conference as “the irrational rants of a man” who might influence “some adherent of his” to “take a little sip of Clorox bleach today to ward off the potential of the virus, and they will die,” Barnicle said, insisting that it was time to “pose this question to the country.” (RELATED: Joe Scarborough: Trump Is ‘Yapping Like An Authoritarian Wannabe’ When He Says He Will Decide When Economy Reopens)
“How would you feel if Dr. [Deborah] Birx and Dr. [Anthony] Fauci both resigned under protest, that the president is acting like someone who is mad, someone who has gone temporarily insane, who is deranged, who feels cornered, who will say anything to get out of anything at a particular moment in time? Not long term, not leadership, not looking down the road, but get out of something like right now. How would you feel if they resigned?”
Trump of late has been focused on reopening the American economy while allowing individual governors to make their decision for themselves.