MSNBC's Joe Scarborough offers brutally blunt advice to Democrats on DACA deal, government shutdown

The Morning Joe team was cutting nobody slack on Tuesday morning, with host Joe Scarborough reserving his toughest love for Democrats. The blunt conversation came as Republican lawmakers have concluded they do not have the votes to pass a long-term federal government funding deal by Friday's deadline, leaving them focused on passing another stopgap spending measure and raising the odds of a government shutdown. Democrats, meanwhile, are using the budget to insist Republicans protect DREAMers — immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children — although there is division in the ranks over to what extent the party is willing to compromise to reach a deal.

Scarborough, though, didn't see any conflict. "You should not give [Republicans] a single vote in keeping the government running," he told the Democrats. "That's their job. This is their government. This is their Congress. This is their presidency … Don't give them a single vote unless they give you a clean bill on DREAMers."

Scarborough insisted that "if you do, you are too weak and too spineless and too stupid when it comes to politics and too cowardly to be given control of Congress in 2018."

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Co-host Mika Brzezinski also offered some advice for Republicans — chiefly that "sucking up" to the president "is not going to help you." Watch below. Jeva Lange