Joe Scarborough: Sean Hannity using Trayvon Martin death to ‘gin up’ ratings

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Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and a proud conservative, called out Fox News host Sean Hannity for using the death of Trayvon Martin to “gin up” his ratings.

After President Barack Obama shared his unscripted thoughts on racial profiling and said, “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” Hannity lashed out.

“Now the president’s saying Trayvon could’ve been me 35 years ago,” Hannity said on his radio show. “This is a particularly helpful comment. Is that the president admitting that I guess because what, he was part of the Choom Gang and he smoked pot and he did a little blow — I’m not sure how to interpret because we know that Trayvon had been smoking pot that night.”

Hannity’s references to past drug use by the president are drawn from confessions he made in his own best-selling autobiography Dreams From My Father. Martin was said to have had traces of marijuana in his system when died.

Scarborough was not shy about taking Hannity to task for introducing drugs into the conversation.

“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? Would we like to go across college campuses in America and tell all white boys that if they have marijuana in their system then they are fair game?”

“It’s 2013, Sean, come on,” he added later. “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.”