A group of MSNBC hosts and commentators hysterically laughed at former President George W. Bush giving a warm welcome to Supreme Court justices on Friday at the inauguration because "they put him in office."
MSNBC's Chris Matthews addressed the comment to his colleague at the network, Rachel Maddow.
"I just saw the warm embrace that W. gave to the Supreme Court justices," Matthews said.
"Yeah," Maddow responded.
"Especially the Republican ones–and I realize why he embraced them," Matthews continued.
Before Matthews could get to the punchline of his joke, others on the panel started laughing.
"They put him in office," Matthews finished.
The panel erupted into laughter that spanned at least seven seconds.
"That was gratitude," someone said through the laughter.
"There is that," Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said.
"Their warm embrace for him was called Bush v. Gore," MSNBC's Brian Williams added.
Maddow continued to laugh, but someone on the panel let out a long noise that appeared to signal they had enough of the joke.
The laughter then died down.