Joe Scarborough and the rest of MSNBC’s Morning Joe panel on Wednesday ripped into Hillary Clinton’s "flat" apology for using a private email server.
"This was a hostage video," Scarborough said as cohost Mika Brzezinski grimaced.
"Did they cut out the part where she said to David, ‘OK, are you happy now?’" Mike Barnicle asked.
With much of the mainstream media calling the apology "too little, too late," Clinton went on the Ellen DeGeneres Show for another go at appearing regretful.
"I made a mistake and I’m sorry for all the confusion that has ensued," Clinton said to DeGeneres.
Scarborough laughed, saying Clinton’s mea culpa looked better on paper in the Washington Post than in person. Once again, Clinton gave a flat delivery of her apology.
The panel said that Clinton’s performance was proof that the last thing she wanted to do was give in on the fact she made a mistake by using her personal email address for all of her official government business. After refusing to concede for months, she finally complied "kicking and screaming."
Clinton also wrote on her Facebook page to make amends with her supporters. This is a quick departure from the day before, when Clinton refused to apologize in an interview with the AP. For months the Democrat said she only regretted the confusion surrounding her emails, not the decision itself.
Willie Geist took issue with the "semantics game" Clinton played by repeatedly saying what she did was allowed before apologizing.
"There was a State Department policy nine months into her term that said it was not allowed. Everything had to be captured on State Department servers and all her emails were not captured on State Department servers," Geist said.
John Heilemann compared Clinton’s tone in her acknowledgment to the verve with which she delivered her infamous "sarcastic and defiant" Snapchat joke.
Heilemann said everything Clinton previously claimed about the email scandal's effect on her campaign was a lie. Clinton repeatedly dismissed the scandal, saying no one cared about the issue but the press and partisan Republicans.
With her recent drop in poll numbers, the Clinton campaign is resetting with a plan to show more humor, heart, and spontaneity on the campaign trail.