The ongoing controversy over Donald Trump's comments about the judge in the lawsuit against his namesake university is "taking a toll" on his national numbers, and the six points he lost were "self-inflicted," MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Friday morning.
"That's the loss before the bump of Bernie [Sanders] meeting with [President Barack] Obama and Obama endorsing Hillary [Clinton], and the Democrats coming together," Scarborough noted on his
"Morning Joe" program.
According to a Fox News poll released on Thursday, Trump's numbers dropped six points since last month and by 11 points among independents.
The poll put Clinton at three points over Trump, by 42 percent to 39 percent, falling within the poll's three-point margin of error. Clinton's numbers did not change from a month ago.
Show co-host Mika Brzezinski said that Trump has been at "radio silence" all week because he was wrong on the judge's comments.
"There has been radio silence because he can't be told he's wrong," said Brzezinski. "I will say you are wrong when you are wrong. This is wrong. It shouldn't be done. You should apologize. I can't get over it."
Meanwhile, Trump has been "obsessing over a battle" with U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel over Trump University, "not over any issue that matters to Americans or to Republicans or conservatives," said Scarborough. "It's something that matters to him and him alone."
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, also on the show's panel, said he predicts Trump's numbers will drop another five points by this time next week, after Democrats enjoyed a "phenomenal week."
That could be different, though, if there was a "different nominee or a nominee with a different mind set, not talking about a personal legal matter but talking about the 38,000 jobs from last month, talking about the Inspector General's report, talking about trade and other issues that have a palpable impact on the Democrat nominee.
"Can you believe the IG Report that came out talking about Hillary Clinton playing fast and loose with information regarding drone strikes, as top secret as it gets, and we have a Republican nominee, he's talking about Trump University," said Scarborough. "Are you kidding me?
That would be dominating the week, but for Donald Trump's own self-absorbed campaign."
"I adopted the Bernie Sanders line and said, 'we don't care about your damn university,'" said Steele. "We don't care about your damn lawsuit. Talk about the fact that you have these things that are third party indictments against Hillary Clinton and her cozying, I'm assuming the Obama agenda on the economy."
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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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