Joe Scarborough slams Trump's children's influence on his campaign: 'The answer is not the family'
During "Morning Joe" on Wednesday, the longtime MSNBC host acknowledged that while Trump's family members have done "great things for the campaign," the campaign would suffer if it did not hire serious campaign staffers who have won past presidential elections.
"There's nobody in this family that has ever run a political campaign before. Or picked a vice president before," Scarborough said.
"At least have them managing it with someone who has done it before."
When Bloomberg Politics editor Mark Halperin pointed out that the Trump family is "very close," Scarborough quickly shot back.
"My family is very close, too. If I decided to be a brain surgeon tomorrow, I wouldn't have Jack and Kate and Andrew and Joey around me going 'Scalpel?'" Scarborough said.
The MSNBC host scoffed at Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort's qualifications to run the campaign, which he said did not align with the current political landscape.
"You've never done this before. And yes, you won the Republican primary. But to suggest that just because you're close as a family that you all alone can run this without someone who that has done something this complicated ... is handing the presidency to Hillary Clinton," Scarborough said.
Scarborough's comments came two days after the campaign suffered a major embarrassment when it was revealed that sections of Melania Trump's major address to the Republican National Convention were lifted from Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention speech.
Trump's children have played a major role in shaping the campaign.
Ivanka Trump was reportedly helped muscle former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski out of the campaign, while her husband Jared Kushner has helped write several major speeches and played a key role in the vice presidential selection process. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have also both taken on roles as major campaign surrogates.
Watch a clip below, via MSNBC: