Scarborough: Key Cabinet Officials 'Betrayed' With Ban Rollout

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough accused President Donald Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon, senior adviser Steven Miller, and Trump himself of betraying most of his key cabinet picks and senators by waiting until the last minute to inform them of an impending travel ban from seven Middle Eastern countries.

"If we want to talk about betrayed, let's talk about betrayed," Scarborough said Tuesday on his "Morning Joe" program. "I've got a great list of people who were betrayed.

"American hero [Secretary of Defense] Gen. James Mattis was betrayed by the Trump administration. Director of the CIA Mike Pompeo was betrayed by the Trump administration. American hero [Director of Homeland Security] Gen. John Kelly betrayed by the Trump administration. [Judiciary] Chairman Bob Goodlatte, betrayed by the Trump administration – behind his back with his own staffers."

Scarborough also said the list of those "betrayed" reaches to Sen. Bob Corker, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, and Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson.

"All of them betrayed by Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, and, yes, the buck stops with Donald Trump," Scarborough said. "All of them betrayed. You want to talk about betrayal, that was betrayal of men who have fought and given everything to their country."

The betrayals came, Scarborough commented, every time Miller or others in the administration talked over the past few days about keeping the matter about the travel stoppage "closely held because they didn't want to tip off terrorists who would then come into the country."

"I'm just wondering what exactly is in Gen. James Mattis' background that concerned Stephen Miller so much that he felt the need to keep our Secretary of Defense in the dark to the details," Scarborough said. "I'm wondering what exactly is in Gen. John Kelly's background and service to this country in war and in peace that made Stephen Miller think that a general who has given his all, given his son for this country, should be left in the dark about an executive order that actually impacts homeland security, impacts our fight against terror."

Further, the former Republican congressman said, "what exactly in Mike Pompeo's background, Rex Tillerson's that made Steven Miller think he could not trust these men to give them the information they needed to implement this, in a way that didn't embarrass the United States and administration in the eyes of the world?"

Scarborough asked his show's panel to think about the lack of trust shown and to ask themselves, "if you're one of these American heroes, why would you stick around and work for a – the first word I can't say, but the second word is show – for this crap show.

"Why would you work at this place if this ever happened again?"

"You have to wonder right now what the conversations are like between General Mattis and Donald Trump, between John Kelly and Donald Trump," show co-host Willie Geist agreed. "If this is your first interaction in office as the head of these departments, your first interaction with the Trump administration, you have to wonder what the hell does the future look like."

Geist continued it is not just cabinet officials who were affected, but people like Corker, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and many others.

"Bob Corker told The Washington Post he found out through the media," Geist said. "He said I talked to some staffers on the hill, but not in our office. [Florida GOP Sen.] Marco Rubio said my staff told the State Department, as of today, was ordered not to talk to Congress about the issue."

Scarborough, who also criticized Miller on Monday for his role in implementing the travel ban and said he was on a "power trip," continued to slam the senior adviser Tuesday for going past the cabinet leaders, and coined a nickname for him later in the program: "Mini-Miller."

Carol Lee, the White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, said she believes the White House is "still operating as if it's in a campaign," and "the problem with that is that there are real life consequences. They are actually putting out policies, and they are not handling it in a way that is giving anybody confidence in this administration."

Trump fired Sally Yates, the acting attorney general and a Democratic appointee, Monday night after she refused to defend in court his controversial refugee and immigration ban, and Trump said she had "betrayed" the Justice Department.

Lee said the firing underscores the anxiety already being felt in Washington.

"Even before the attorney general's firing, you had the press secretary saying to an administration – where there's widespread anxiety with people who worked in the government for a long period of time, what's going to happen to their jobs – you have a press secretary saying if people don't want to get with the program, then they can go," Lee said.

Scarborough said the use of the word "betrayed" when it came to Yates' firing was "frightening."

"Using the word betrayed for somebody is frightening," he said. "That's what an autocrat would use, whoever put that word in there."

Related Stories: