Mika Brzezinski: I Want a Female Democrat in '16, But Hillary?

"Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski admitted Friday she wants a Democrat and a woman to be the next president, but she also wants the only person running for that spot, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to answer some tough questions.

"I want to see the first woman president of the United States in my lifetime," the MSNBC star said on the show. "I would like to see a Democrat win the next election. I'm going to be transparent."

And while not mentioning Clinton specifically by name, at the end of the show, Brzezinski reiterated to the show's star Joe Scarborough: "I want to see the first woman president. I want a Democrat to win ... I'm just transparent."

Brzezinski's comments came during a discussion about Clinton's first official launch speech, to be delivered on Saturday on New York's Roosevelt Island and expected to focus on her family and upbringing.

Brzezinski, though, said she wants Clinton to go on stage Saturday "and try to put this behind her," referring to the questions swirling about the Clinton Foundation and her use of private email servers as secretary of state.

"The questions scream out at me," she said. "I look forward to Saturday. I want to hear it. But I don't understand how Bill Clinton can get on stage and say maybe some people had ulterior motives, and we're just going be like, 'OK, let's cover Marco Rubio's driveway.'"

Scarborough, though, questioned whether Clinton will be able to directly answer tough questions, as she's not quick on her feet.

"The first person says your husband got $550,000 for making a 45-minute speech in front of X at the same time they were at the State Department and you were doing Y ... and she fumbles through that," he said. "I don't know that there's ever going to be good time for her to stand in front of a microphone and answer those questions."

Brzezinski, the daughter of former Jimmy Carter National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and the sister of diplomat Mark Brzezinski, said that she grew up in a family where she saw how much of politics works. But while she knows that ethics and rules must be followed, she's "flummoxed" at Clinton's issues, and she wants there to be a "good answer" to the many questions surrounding her.

And while Brzezinski said she wants a female, Democratic president, earlier this year she complained that Clinton's "everyday American" campaign theme sounds too much like the populist message of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has long ruled out her own candidacy.

"It's a great message, but, if this is really going to resonate with people, it has to stop sounding like she talked to Elizabeth Warren on the phone, and then repeated everything Elizabeth Warren said," Brzezinski said on that show. "I wish she had said this a little bit before the two of them met, and before people started talking about Elizabeth Warren."

She has openly voiced admiration for both Clinton and Warren on recent shows, reports The Washington Examiner, including in April, when she spoke excitedly about receiving a Warren T-shirt that she was going to wear it while she was running, then on the same show proclaimed: "I learned that Hillary Clinton is on the road and ready to sell a message and I can't wait to hear it."

Watch the video here.

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