Morning Joe hosts slam 'lock him up' chants against Trump: 'It's sickening'

The hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe aren't on board with the "lock him up" chants against President Trump.

Trump attended Game 5 of the World Series on Sunday and at one point was met with boos from the crowd, as well as a chant of "lock him up." That phrase originated during the 2016 presidential election when Trump supporters chanted "lock her up" in reference to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with Eric Trump at a recent rally also encouraging a "lock him up" chant against former Vice President Joe Biden's son.

But on Monday's Morning Joe, Trump critics Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski argued the chant is just as wrong when used by Trump's critics as when it's used by his supporters, with Brzezinski calling it "sickening" in both contexts.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Of course it's sickening," Scarborough agreed. "We are Americans, and we do not do that. We do not want the world hearing us chant 'lock him up,' to this president or to any president."

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) was on the same page, in a Monday appearance on CNN saying he has a "hard time" seeing a crowd chant "lock him up" about the president.

"I frankly think the office of the president deserves respect, even when the actions of our president, at times, don't," he said, adding he "certainly" hopes not to see this chant continuing to be used by Democrats in the future.

Clearly, there's plenty of disagreement on this front, though, with the Morning Joe clip getting slapped with a Twitter ratio. Brendan Morrow