MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski escalated her simmering feud with Donald Trump, bantering Monday with "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough about the GOP nominee's mental health and saying it is time for him to undergo a psychological evaluation to determine if his actions indicate "signs of something."
"I think it's worth asking someone in the mental health community if this is someone you'd want to look at — are these signs of something that perhaps could lead to a diagnosis?" Brzezinski said on the program, on the day after David Plouffe, President Barack Obama's former campaign manager, called Trump a "psychopath" on NBC News' "Meet the Press" program.
"Let's stop pretending we're dealing with someone who we can completely understand," Brzezinski said. "When you see someone who you think has problems, you know it, and there's not anybody at this table who doesn't think he has some sort of problem. Let's ask the questions. Let's do this at this point."
Scarborough, though, told her a psychiatrist could not come on the show and diagnose a person he or she has not personally examined, but Brzezinski said that person could talk about "character traits that we are seeing repetitively here."
Scarborough also said he doesn't think the correct word for Trump would be psychopath, but instead "sociopath."
"Now, psychopath — there are a lot of similar traits — except a psychopath chains people downstairs and eats them," Scarborough said. "A sociopath doesn't inflict physical pain and torture."
"How about just narcissist and maybe some anxiety issue?" Brzezinski replied.
Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr. warned against tagging Trump with a mental illness, as his statements are being supported nationwide.
"We can't say that he's just, something's mentally wrong with him, as an easy way to dismiss him," Glaude said.
Brzezinski claimed she has been asked "hundreds of times" if there was something wrong with Trump.
Former Ted Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler, now an MSNBC commentator, said as presidential medical records usually become public, there should also be a public mental health evaluation.
Brzezinski denied she was joking about her call for Trump to be evaluated.
"Mental health is just like diabetes or any other physical health," Brzezinski commented. "This is not something I'm making a joke about."
Scarborough, though, pointed out the American Psychiatric Association ruled against professionals evaluating public figures who they have not evaluated, after psychiatrists declared Republican nominee Barry Goldwater mentally unfit for office in 1994.
The comments came on the same morning Scarborough coined a viral hashtag for Trump, #AmnestyDon, to poke fun at his changing comments on immigration and a weekend after Trump called Brzezinski "crazy" on Twitter.