The panel on MSNBC's Morning Joe harshly criticized the Democratic National Committee on Monday for trying to protect Hillary Clinton and ensure she receives the Democratic party's presidential nomination.
While discussing Saturday night's Democratic presidential debate, co-host Mika Brzezinski asked, "There isn't really a nomination fight, is there? The way this is set up."
Her co-host Joe Scarborough shook his head in agreement before saying to BBC's Katty Kay, "If the Democrats, I think, for the first time in the history of modern politics - and I'm serious - you had a political party take every measure they could for Americans not to see their candidates."
Scarborough elaborated on how the debate was on a Saturday night before Christmas and had to compete with multiple football games and the opening of the new Star Wars movie before adding, "Seriously, if you had worked any harder to not get people watching your candidates debate, you couldn't have done it."
"Yeah, isn't the next one on a Sunday night, too," Kay said.
Scarborough argued that someone should call out DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for creating what he called a "disappointing" primary process.
"Martin O'Malley has been trying to call that out again and again and again, Katty, and nobody's listening, nobody cares. There's something about Hillary Clinton's world that it just doesn't matter."
Kay agreed, saying that there is no actual nomination process with Clinton as the presumptive nominee. She does believe that the debates are still worth watching to hear where Clinton stands on the issues and how the Democratic frontrunner will answer questions in the general election.
Willie Geist then added his input, agreeing with the panel.
"The DNC isn't even hiding which side it's on," Geist said, describing how Schultz was "very defensive" when the Bernie Sanders campaign accused her and the DNC of siding with Hillary Clinton over a data breach dispute.
Sanders campaign staffers had improperly accessed voter lists from the Clinton campaign, causing the DNC to immediately ban the Sanders campaign from its voter lists. After protests and criticism from the Sanders campaign and its supports, Schultz subsequently undid her decision.
Geist said the Sanders campaign has a point in being angry over the DNC's quick move to punish it and give Hillary Clinton an advantage.
Scarborough then cited Ron Fournier of the National Journal saying that "classified wasn't marked on any of the documents that Bernie Sanders' people [retrieved]," referencing Clinton's use of a private email server in her house when she was secretary of state. It has been reported that multiple emails on that server were considered classified.
"I guess Debbie Wasserman Schultz is really powerful," Brzezinski added. "It's kind of stunning to me."