Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski became emotional Friday while discussing the release of a Coast Guard lieutenant accused of threatening her husband and co-host, Joe Scarborough.
Christopher Hasson, 50 and a self-proclaimed white nationalist, has been hit with firearms and drug charges, but—despite his alleged ownership of a hit list of prominent Democrats, Supreme Court justices, TV journalists, and social-media executives—he hasn’t been charged with any terrorism-related offenses.
Prosecutors say authorities found 15 guns and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition at Hasson’s Maryland home in February.
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U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day said Thursday that he had “grave concerns” about Hasson based on the evidence and noted that he will have “a whole lot of supervision” before his release before his eventual trial.
“What concerns me is he’s targeted Pelosi; he’s targeted Schumer,” Scarborough said Morning Joe. “He’s targeted all Democratic senators that have decided they’re going to run against Trump. And he’s targeted people in the media who have been seen as critics of Trump.”
Hasson’s purported hit list included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris. It also included two unnamed Supreme Court justices, Scarborough and Chris Hayes of MSNBC, and Chris Cuomo and Van Jones of CNN.
“The defendant conducted an internet search for ‘are supreme court justices protected’ approximately two weeks prior to searching for the home addresses of the two Supreme Court justices,” according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Windom.
Brzezinski said she didn’t understand how any judge could let Hasson walk out of jail.
“Why? How could this be?” she asked. “These are the things you find after a massacre. And you go, ‘Oh, these were the warning signs, we should’ve noticed them!’ So the warning signs are right there.”
“And I say this as the wife of someone who was on that list,” Brzezinski continued. “So you may hear a little intensity in my voice. But I think Trump’s doing this. How can I not do that math in my mind that the attorney general is making a clear decision here to make sure the lives of people who are being targeted continue to be in danger because they will not put together the pieces of this case? A stockpile of weapons, a list of people that he wants to kill. Are you serious? There’s no way not to let this guy walk? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Scarborough added: “If somebody threatens the president of the United States, they’re thrown in jail. If this guy had put the president of the United States on his kill list, instead of the speaker of the House and the Senate minority leader and Democratic presidential candidates, that person would be in jail, and that person would stay in jail.”
“Who in the hell would look at this manifesto and say, ‘Hey I don’t know this might be a tough case, I don’t know if we want to move it forward or not.’ Who would do that?” he added.
