GOP nominee Donald Trump Friday demanded an apology from MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski after Pastor Mark Burns, one of his more-prominent African-American evangelical supporters, faced off in heated arguments with the panel on the network's "Morning Joe" program.
Trump, shortly after Burns defended him on the show, returned the favor on Twitter:
Burns, who attended a meeting with Trump on Thursday at Trump Towers in New York along with numerous other black and Latino leaders, insisted on the morning program that Trump "absolutely" listened to the concerns voiced in the meeting, and had no doubt that Trump "truly, truly wants to be a president for all Americans."
But the show's panel, led by Brzezinski in the absence of show host Joe Scarborough, rapidly took turns firing questions at Burns.
"Are you hopeful that, that, I don't even know what to ask, actually. I'm sorry. Your candidate is saying things that are really …," Brzezinski told him.
Her hesitant question came after an incident earlier in the morning when Brzezinski, a Democrat and frequent Trump critic, had implored Trump on the air to consider the power of his words.
"Donald Trump, you have no idea what your words mean," she said, solemnly looking into the camera. "You have no idea. You have no idea what your words mean. And I can't pretend and sort of try and cover this fairly and put it in objectively. You have no idea what your words mean and what you're doing to this country."
By the time Burns came on, the panel, consisting of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Mike Barnicle, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, and former George W. Bush aide Nicolle Wallace, was ready with questions about the back-and-forth fight between Trump and Clinton on the issue of race.
"Is he healed? Have y'all healed him of his …" Sharpton asked.
"We have laid hands on him, and I believe without a doubt Mr. Trump truly, truly wants to be a president for all Americans," Burns replied. "I know without question there has been some language that has been controversial to some Americans. But I believe we're just really in a very racially divided country right now and I think it's just so imperative."
But when asked if he thought Trump brought that division on, he said the matter has more to do with a growing "frustration," rather than something that Trump just created.
Burns said he also would not consider Trump's attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel's ability to preside over the Trump University case as being racist.
"I understand what real racism is ... I'm a black man from the Deep South," Burns said. "So for you to sit here and ask me if I don't know what real racism is, I don't think so."
Burns, meanwhile, told the program that one of the main topics that came up at the meeting with Trump this week was about education, and called for more charter and magnet schools, echoing Trump's position.
Sharpton, though, argued that Trump has "sat up and pandered and said 'that's what y'all say. Fine, that's good.' That's not a policy."
Robinson, meanwhile, wanted to know how Burns was able to support Trump based on lack of an education policy, but Burns turned his answer around, saying he was unable to support a candidate "that will support the death of millions of babies in this country."
"But on the other things, would you concede that he's got to go?" Wallace asked him.
"I'm not your political analyst," said Burns. "I have the wonderful opportunity to know him personally."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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