Patel, a lawyer who held several positions in Trump's first administration, sparked a flurry of criticism due to his advocacy of conspiracy theories and demands for retaliation against Trump's rivals in a second term.

The show played a specific video several times with Joe Scarborough issuing dire warnings that Patel would be bad for Trump and his candidacy would suffer the same fate as Matt Gaetz, who retracted his nomination due to alleged sexual misconduct.

Scarborough, the anchor of Morning Joe, demanded to play an old video of Patel at least three times, in which Patel spoke about targeting conspirators in the media as well as in the administration. “Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Trump loyalists asserted in the 2023 interview with Steve Bannon.

“We’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice,” he added.

Co-host Mika Brzezinski attempted to welcome a guest for a response after the video was first shown on Morning Joe, but Scarborough cut her off.

“Hold on a second. Could you play that again? Can we do a CC to Republican Senators?” he said. “Hey, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley. Let’s see… Mike Rounds is a great patriot, deeply disturbed by this. He said pretty much just that. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, who certainly stood up to the atrocious selection of Matt Gaetz [as attorney general]. We want to play this one again.”

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Scarborough calls Patel pick ‘would be bad for everyone’

According to Scarborough, Trump and everyone else would suffer if Patel were to lead the FBI. “This is not only bad for the men and women who run the FBI. This is not only bad for the rule of law. This is not only bad for the First Amendment. This is not only bad for the United States of America. This is bad for Donald Trump. This is bad for the Trump administration.”

“This is not going to work out. Therefore, I believe that the greatest outcome for everyone is that Kash Patel—and the discussion surrounding him—ends similarly to how Matt Gaetz's nomination ended because this will not be good for anyone,” Scarborough stated.