MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough called Senate Republicans "jackasses" on Tuesday because of their recently unveiled health care bill to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Scarborough and columnist Mike Barnicle criticized the Senate GOP health care legislation, calling it a precursor to move onto a tax reform bill rather than a true health care plan.
"I'm going to say what they are. You talk to these jackasses behind closed doors and you go, 'What are you doing?'" Scarborough said of Senate Republicans.
"That's the thing," Barnicle said in agreement.
Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, spent part of Tuesday's show asking about the current direction of the Republican Party.
He and Barnicle also joked that the GOP Obamacare replacement will force grandparents to begin "coming home and live on the couch" because nursing homes will kick them out.
"So Mike, other than your keen observation that if this bill passes grandpa is coming home—" Scarborough said with a smile before Barnicle interjected.
"Grandpa and grandma are coming home to live on the couch downstairs. They'll be thrown out of the nursing home," Barnicle said.
Barnicle is not the first critic of Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare to suggest that such a move would force grandparents to move.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said in January that grandmothers would be forced to live in guest rooms if Republicans successfully repeal Obamacare.
"If you're a senior, you know Medicaid, almost half of Medicaid, is about long term health care," Pelosi told reporters. "You want Grandma living in the guest room? You repeal the Affordable Care Act. You go along with—this is part of an initiative that is part of the [Paul] Ryan budget."
UPDATED 10:01 A.M.: This post was updated to include Mike Barnicle and Nancy Pelosi's comments on grandparents.