Fireworks on MSNBC: 'Morning Joe' Hosts Battle Over Scott Walker and Rudy Giuliani

Things got a little tense on the set of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Monday as the panel debated Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's answers to recent "gotcha" questions from reporters.

Image source: MSNBC

The crew started the segment breaking down Walker's response to a reporter who asked Walker if he believes President Barack Obama is a Christian.

After initially saying that he doesn't know because he's “never asked the president” about his faith, Walker lashed out: “To me, this is a classic example of why people hate Washington and, increasingly, they dislike the press.”

He added: “Was it [Teamsters president] Jimmy Hoffa that ripped on the Tea Party and called them unpatriotic, and the president was standing there and nobody asked him that?”

“To me, it seems I’ve had multiple days of an incredible double standard. They don’t ask the president about people like Jimmy Hoffa, they don’t ask Hillary Clinton about others out there," Walker said.

Bloomberg's John Heilemann said on MSNBC that Walker is right. "The press has a double standard on this kind of stuff."

The panel seemed to agree that Walker or any candidate facing similar questions would be best advised to answer, "the president says he's a Christian, I take him at his word, and let's move on."

The Daily Beast's Matt Lewis was also brought into the conversation, specifically to talk about a tweet he posted about Walker's responses. 

Scott Walker’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Answer https://t.co/BIW1V03WIA

— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) February 22, 2015

Lewis pointed to a media bias against conservatives: "Let's be honest, there is a double standard, there is a liberal media."

But he admonished Walker and other candidates to be mindful of "gotcha" questions.

Lewis' advice, "If you're Scott Walker and you're trying to win the election, you can't be stupid...you have to answer these questions effectively"

When the focus shifted from Walker to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his Wall Street Journal op-ed saying he "didn't intend to question President Obama's motives or the content of his heart," things started to get tense between co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

Brzezinski called Giuliani's comments, "much worse than Scott Walker" and that Giuliani in her mind was unsuccessful in his efforts to "clarify" his prior statements.

Image source: MSNBC

Scarborough disagreed with his Brzezinski, but after a clip of White House press secretary Josh Earnest calling Giuliani's comments "sad" on Friday, Scarborough said that while he's been critical of what Giuliani said about the president, "I can't let a White House spokesperson say something like that when Nancy Pelosi and others have called Republicans unpatriotic for doing things most people would not consider to be unpatriotic."

Brzezinski disagreed, saying: "I question the patriotism of someone who questions the president's patriotism."

Scarborough proceeded with his argument, raising his tone to make a point about the double standard and using the example of a former MSNBC co-worker.

"Keith Olbermann, on this network, said some of most horrific things about the president of the United States and I didn't see people people's hair going up in flames then!"

Brzezinski called Scarborough's argument a "false parallel."

In what appeared to be an effort to cut the tension while also pointing out a double standard in the media, panelist Mark Halperin posed the question, "What if Dick Cheney had nuzzled the hair of a woman standing in a photo op in the White House for 23 seconds? What would have happened?"

Mika replied, "I don't know."

Scarborough was incredulous, only managing an "oh my God!"

Halperin added, "I think the media would want charges brought immediately."

Watch the exchange:

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