MSNBC's "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough Thursday momentarily blamed GOP candidate Marco Rubio's "dirty money" for pushing GOP presidential rival Chris Christie's numbers down to fourth place in the New Hampshire primary and his eventual decision to drop out of the race, a slip that could add fuel to the growing complaints about the morning show.
"Christie actually was having a great run, he was doing well in town hall meetings, his numbers were going up and then Marco's team started trashing him in ads," said
Scarborough on the show about Christie, who has appeared on the show often while Rubio has never appeared.
"I would hope that the people commenting on Christie leaving the race — saying he was mean to Marco and that's why he lost — I would hope that they were ignorant and not actually lying to their readers and viewers," said Scarborough.
"If you're too ignorant to know that's what happened in New Hampshire, that it was Marco's dirty money — dark money, Marco's dark money, and then it was his money that got Chris Christie down to the 4 percent where he started attacking Marco, then you shouldn't be covering politics, you're lying to your people."
Scarborough said that after Christie attacked Rubio with his "boy in the bubble" comments and complaints that the Florida senator's comments are "scripted," Rubio's team started "trashing him in ads and they just started running non-stop ads."
"And then the dark money came in and they started trashing Chris Christie with dark money ads and so all of the positive he was doing one town hall meeting at a time just got completely obliterated," said Scarborough.
Scarborough's comments came a week after a leaked email from an MSNBC producer said that the "Morning Joe" host was angry that Rubio appeared on other cable news programs, but not his,
The New York Times reports.
Scarborough has often criticized Rubio on his show, mocking his black "shagalicious" boots and comparing him to a "student government president."
But his biggest hit against Rubio in the days before the New Hampshire primary, when he and show co-host grilled Rick Santorum, who is backing Rubio after dropping his own presidential bid, had difficulty outlining any of Rubio's achievements.
The interview gave ammunition to several GOP candidates, including Christie.
But Scarborough, who served in the Florida House, denies he targets or resents Rubio, but "if I were running a campaign that was risk-averse and I had a candidate that was more packaged and more programmed and might not be able to answer the follow-up question, it would not be a good show to come on."