Former Florida GOP Congressman Joe Scarborough lit into Fox talk-show host Sean Hannity Monday for suggesting that Trayvon Martin was a messed-up teenager who "had it coming" when he was killed by George Zimmerman in their confrontation in February 2012.
Speaking with emotion and using strong words tinged with anger and frustration, Scarborough, host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," blasted Hannity and "others on the right" and "some in the middle," who, in effect, said 17-year-old Martin was responsible for his own death because he had "signs of marijuana in his system."
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"Really, really, in 2013, Sean. Come on," Scarborough said. "Whatever excuse there is, to say this young black man had it coming to him — that is the defense because there is no defense for shooting down a young black man in a middle-class neighborhood with Skittles."
"Armed with Skittles," Scarborough repeated in a reference to the candy that Martin had bought at a convenience store shortly before he was shot and killed by Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla.
Scarborough was taking issue with comments Hannity made after President Barack Obama told reporters at the White House Friday that Trayvon Martin "could have been me," a reference he made in acknowledging the racial divide that is still so much a part of American society.
Hannity criticized the president, saying he may have been "admitting" that "he smoked pot and did a little blow" when he was a young man by comparing himself to Martin because "we know Trayvon had been smoking pot that night."
"I'm not sure what that means," Hannity said of the president's remarks.
"Wow," Scarborough said, reacting to Hannity's statement, which he called "racially intolerant."
"It's perverse. ... It seems we keep hearing that Trayvon had it coming because he had pot in his system," Scarborough said. "I keep hearing this from people like Sean Hannity and others on the right. Really, is that the new standard? Would we like to go across college campuses and tell white boys that if they have marijuana in their system then they're fair game? Or that if they're walking through a neighborhood and they react in an untoward way toward someone who is chasing them through a neighborhood?"
Scarborough called "the entire spectacle" depressing, saying it was no wonder that the "parents and loved ones of African-American children" are reacting by going out and peacefully marching and protesting over the Zimmerman verdict.
They have plenty of reason to be concerned, he said, because "the vultures are going to continue to circle around this young teenager's body" and will "continue to try a young man and to destroy his reputation for doing nothing more than walking through a neighborhood.
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"All of this is making it all too evident that too many people out there in the media and politicians are calculating and callous in their commentary," Scarborough said.
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