Today on “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough made the claim that Republicans are not just dupes for Trump, they’re also Putin’s puppets.

“You have these dupes in the House of Representatives who — they’re not just being dupes for Donald Trump, but now, since they’re trying to obstruct a Russian investigation and interfering with democracy, they’re now — they’re being dupes for Vladimir Putin.”

Watch the whole ridiculous thing:

Transcript:

BRZEZINSKI: “Well, 61 percent of voters think the investigation is a serious matter while only 33 percent think it’s to discredit Trump.”

SCARBOROUGH: “That’s two to one. Again, the numbers are going in the opposite direction, Willie. This has been, again, the strategy, I can’t state it enough, this strategy of Rudy Giuliani’s is a Steve Bannon strategy. It’s a 33 percent strategy. And you have these dupes in the House of Representatives who — they’re not just being dupes for Donald Trump, but now, since they’re trying to obstruct a Russian investigation and interfering with democracy, they’re now — they’re being dupes for Vladimir Putin. Does that play in the Deep South? Because I’m from the Deep South and that ain’t ever played in Dixie. That’s never played where I come from.”

GEIST: “Well, you’re looking at the numbers right here. It’s not playing. And I think the reason Bob Mueller’s approval rating goes up is because he’s not interested in his approval rating. In other words, he has his head down doing his work. And the question of whether or not this is a serious matter, Russia, has basically been settled by the intelligence agencies who said Russia went after our elections and continues to go after our elections. That’s not a question about Donald Trump. That’s a question about whether it’s a smart, good, and important idea to investigate what happened in the 2016 election and what continues to happen as all the intelligence agencies have agreed to our system from Russia.”

BRZEZINSKI: “And Susan del Percio, asked whether the President should testify under oath, more than 7 in 10 say yes, while 23 percent say no. 47 percent say yes when asked if President Trump should be impeached and removed from office. That’s up 5 points since June. 48 percent feel he should not.”

SCARBOROUGH: “So let’s just keep that up for a second. Susan, I’ve been following politics for a very long time. I’ve just never seen a number like that where half of America — and it’s moved up 5 percent since June.”

BRZEZINSKI: “Maybe it’s a compliment. They want to hear from him.”

SCARBOROUGH: “Half of America want Donald Trump impeached and removed from office. Now, we know it’s not going to happen. I mean, it’s not going to happen because it doesn’t really matter what happens in the elections this fall. There is not going to be two-thirds of the Senate that is going to vote to remove him from office. So many of these Republicans are scared of their own shadow. So, even if high crimes and misdemeanors are shown, that’s not going to happen. It’s just a bigger question of how far Donald Trump has fallen in the eyes of a lot of Americans, even since this spring where he had a 44-45 percent approval rating.”

DEL PERCIO: “And that 72 percent of wanting to see Donald Trump testify is part of Trump’s own doing and that number is going to irk him. That’s going to stay with him. But just stepping back and looking at Mueller and his numbers doing so well, I think you can’t forget that you had the Manafort guilty finding which was a big success for Mueller. And even John McCain’s funeral, seen bipartisanship. Now we’re after Labor Day and we’re starting to see more campaigning. People don’t like to see the ugliest that we’re seeing and Donald Trump has just gone more and more down that road of ugly and attack. And I think he’s just going to spiral into it.”

Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers’ newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share to your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you.