“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough gave Donald Trump a hellish scolding Friday for his pre-midterm antics.

The MS NOW star told the president that “Americans aren’t as stupid as you think they are” and that Republicans’ “closing argument” before the election has failed for what has become “the party of pedophile protectors.”

The host drilled the president over defending Vivek Ramaswamy’s outrageous attack ad on Democratic opponent Amy Acton in the Ohio governor’s race, which featured Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, calling her a liar and urging residents not to vote for her. Arthur lost custody of Acton when she was a child after Acton accused her stepfather, Cledith “Bud” Arthur, of sexually abusing her when she was 9, up until she was 12 years old. Her mother then fled the state with the criminally charged stepfather.

Trump called the ad “fair game” and “paydirt” while praising the mother’s “courage.”

Scarborough said, “You know, Donald, Americans aren’t as stupid as you think they are. And you certainly know that if your father had been accused of raping you and your sister and you had to be taken out of the home when you were 11 years, 12 years old, and your mother had fled the state with the rapist, with a child rapist. Yeah, the press would all be criticizing that ad. And you know that. This isn’t about the press.”

He continued, “I mean, it’s so stupid. I cannot believe how stupid this is. What you’re doing in the final stages of this campaign to hurt Republicans. I really can’t.”

Scarborough reminded Trump that Ohio’s current GOP governor and a Republican senator have objected to the ad.

“I don’t know if you think that you’re talking to 3-year-olds and they don’t understand, but Americans understand,” Scarborough said. “They understand. And for Republicans, this is horrible news.”

The commentator then referenced Trump’s disturbing alliance with the Russian president.

“You start the week defending, getting in bed with Vladimir Putin, doing everything you can to destroy freedom fighters in Ukraine, doing everything you can to undermine Western democracy, to undermine Western civilization. And then you follow with this?” Scarborough asked.

“Listen, man, it’s 11 days. In 11 days, Americans vote. And you’re talking about this at a time when people can’t afford their lives,” he said, referring to high prices on the heels of Trump’s prolonged war of choice against Iran.

“Republicans are putting quite a closing argument forward,” the host said. “Now we’re used to seeing distractions in the final days before an election, but becoming the party of pedophile protectors?”

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