MSNBC’s Morning Joe panel blasted the Democratic Party for having a "rigged" primary process on Thursday and called on the party to stop bypassing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and his supporters by letting unpledged delegates vote at the convention this summer.
"If I’m Bernie Sanders and I win California, I say wait a second ... Why don’t we not short-circuit this process and let the process play out the way the rules say the process is supposed to play out," co-host Joe Scarborough said in reference to the Democratic presidential primary. "Let the superdelegates make their minds up at the convention when they actually vote. Stop trying to short-circuit this process like you tried to short-circuit the debate process."
"From the get-go. Yes, from the get-go," co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed.
"I’m reminded of Iowa," Scarborough said. "The results were still coming in in Iowa and looked like it was too close to call. The Democratic Party in Iowa rigged Hillary supporters. They acutally called the election before they should have. They should have waited a day or two. It was rigged."
Sanders supporters have also called the Democratic primary rigged, arguing that the party’s superdelegate system circumvents the voters’ will and unfairly helps Clinton. Superdelegates are unpledged delegates who are major elected officials and prominent members of the party with heavy influence over the final delegate count.
The power of Clinton’s support among superdelegates was evident in the New Hampshire primary in February. Sanders trounced Clinton in New Hampshire by 22 points, but both candidates left the state with the same number of delegates because of Clinton’s superdelegate lead.
This tension has helped lead to a contentious relationship between Sanders and the Democratic National Committee, throwing the party into turmoil with Sanders going so far as to endorse the DNC chairowman’s primary opponent in her congressional race.
Scarborough’s accusations of rigging the Democratic primary went beyond the superdelegate system.
"The same thing happened when you came to the debate process, the debate process clearly rigged," Scarborough continued. "And here we have once again everybody talking about, let’s rig the process."
Morning Joe has previously criticzed the Democratic National Committee’s debate rules during the primary, arguing the DNC scheduled fewer debates at times likely to receive less viewers in an effort to protect Clinton.
"Forget the fact that the rules say the superdelegates vote at the conventions. We don’t know what’s going to happen between now and the conventions. We don’t know what the FBI is going to say. We don’t know what other [inspector generals] are going to say," Scarborough said.
Scarborough was referencing a report released last week by the State Department inspector general that shows Clinton’s exclusive use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state violated National Archives and Records Administration regulations on the use of personal email accounts by senior administration officials. The FBI is investigating the matter and could choose to recommend that the Justice Department charge Clinton for a crime, which many experts believe is the only way that she would not receive the Democratic nomination.
"Let the superdelegates vote when the superdelegates are supposed to vote by the rules and stop short-circuting the process," Scarborough said. "That is what Bernie Sanders should say."