The “Morning Joe” panel on Wednesday accused the media of unfairly favoring Republican candidate Donald Trump in an effort to appear unbiased against Democrats.

The panel argued that the media had attempted to appear fair and objective towards both presidential candidates ahead of the 2024 election but had failed to hold Trump accountable for his dangerous rhetoric. Co-host Mike Barnicle argued that the media had ignored Trump's words and had always included criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris when reporting negatively on the former president.

“There's a false equivalence in this election coverage. Donald Trump can say whatever he wants about submarines and sharks and batteries, but the coverage isn't really about who said it, why they said it, who Trump is as a person,” Barnicle said. “He's lost his mind. And every time that false equivalence coverage comes up, too many reporters and American newspapers add, 'By the way, Kamala Harris has changed her mind about fracking.' They always include that in their coverage. It's ridiculous. We're not covering how dangerous this guy is.”

Co-host Joe Scarborough said the media was failing in its duty to cover Trump impartially and was slipping into “moral relativism”.

“For some reason, nine years into the Donald Trump era in American politics, the mainstream media still doesn't know what to do with Donald Trump,” Scarborough said. “They're still falling into moral relativism, saying, 'Yeah, but, yeah, but,' and again, they don't know what to make of things. As I said yesterday, they're so obsessed with objectivity that they're treating this race like it's 1996… Their 'objectivity' – and I put that in quotes – their 'objectivity' is not actually objective at all. They're so numb to the hatred, the hate speech that's been coming out of Donald Trump's mouth for the last nine years that it ends up working in his favor every day.”

Scarborough argued that when President Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery to honor 13 service members who died during the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan, the media focused on Harris' failure to hold a public ceremony for them. (Related: Scarborough says Trump should 'worry about capitalists,' ignores Kamala's price gouging suggestion)

Co-host Jonathan Lemire agreed with his fellow co-hosts, but argued that the media has “made improvements” in covering Trump both during and since his presidency.

“But as you say, in an effort to appear balanced and objective, mistakes were undoubtedly made and standards were undoubtedly applied to both candidates, even though Donald Trump is a different beast,” Lemire said. “He is an insurrectionist candidate and we must never forget that. He has lied more than any major politician has ever done. He is someone who ignores all the rules and norms, and he is someone who has been convicted of a crime. And all of that needs to be told over and over again.”

Scarborough also criticized CNBC host Joe Curnen. grill After Harris said in an interview on Tuesday that she wouldn't vote for Trump because of his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election, former Republican Sen. Pat Toomey criticized Harris' tax policies.

“How do you stack up a rebellion against the U.S. government against changing the tax code?” Scarborough asked.

“I don't understand this shortsightedness. We need states to set taxes,” added co-host Mika Brzezinski.

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