President Donald Trump's recent statements sound like someone who has dementia, MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough said Tuesday.
"It was really shocking… he was mumbling, rambling around, incoherent, and then just sort of quit talking, walked off," Scarborough said.
Trump on Sunday abruptly ended an interview with CBS' John Dickerson after being asked about his claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the presidential campaign.
"Morning Joe's" panel on Tuesday also noted Trump's comments about the Civil War, in which the commander in chief questioned why that war was not avoided.
"My mother had dementia for 10 years," Scarborough said. "That sounds like the sort of thing my mother would say today…it's beyond the realm, and I'm not trying to be anything here but very direct. That's something that a 5-year-old might ask.
"He doesn't seem to remember what he said just five minutes ago," Scarborough continued.
"That's not anything that any grown-up that I've ever been around in my entire life would ever let pass from their lips, because that has been the central question of how did America begin," he added.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski said she worried that no one in the White House could rein Trump in because "he's blithering right and left, and I can only imagine that his staff is sitting there with their head in their hands, because no one can stop him."
Historian Jon Meacham, also on the show's panel, compared Trump to a pinball machine.
"He's just this steel ball that hits something, the bells go off and he bounces off and hits something else, and that's not the most reassuring image you want in a nuclear age at the highest levels," Meacham said.
Transcripts of Trump's recent interviews are "disturbing," panelist Mike Barnicle added and a president's ability to communicate is important.
"The employment of language for a president is one of the most vital aspects of the presidency," said Barnicle.
"It's very upsetting, kind of depressing, to read the transcripts of this particular president as he rambles on anecdotally, ad libs about things that are critical to the future of this country."