Morning Joe's hosts had a little fun Wednesday morning regarding the battery charges against Corey Lewandowski, with host Joe Scarborough appearing to mimic the incident and Mika Brzezinski quipping, "That's against the law in Florida."
Lewandowski, Donald Trump's campaign manager, was charged Tuesday with battery in Jupiter, Florida, for allegedly yanking Michelle Fields' arm with enough force to leave bruises. He has denied the charges, and the Trump campaign insists he will be exonerated.
After a package on celebrity endorsers of candidates, the show went back to Brzezinski, who looked in confusion at Scarborough standing behind the Huffington Post's Sam Stein.
"Are you all right?" Brzezinski said.
"Am I all right? Isn't the bigger question am I going to survive this?" Stein asked, as the camera panned to show Scarborough patting him on the shoulder.
"That's against the law in Florida," Brzezinski said. "Stop it."
Scarborough jokingly asked if that constituted battery, and then he denied ever touching Stein.
"I'm leaving this. I'm not part of this," Stein said.
Earlier in the broadcast, the show's hosts discussed the allegations against Lewandowski, with Scarborough saying the campaign manager's actions were inappropriate but also saying the battery charges were overwrought.
Trump and his supporters have pointed to the video as proof that the incident was blown out of proportion. Detractors and other observers said the video demonstrates Lewandowski lied about never touching Fields and it backs up her version of events.
The pair of Morning Joe hosts has repeatedly, sometimes angrily, bristled at the notion that they have offered favorable coverage to Trump. For his part, Scarborough did refer to Trump's initial inability to disavow support of David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan as "disqualifying."
Scarborough also once hung up on Trump, a frequent caller into the show, although he brought him back on the line after a commercial break.