MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Condemns Trump Admin's 'Preposterous' Comey Indictment Over Seashell Photo

The hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” sharply criticized the Trump administration on Wednesday for filing additional criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey, labeling the indictment as “just preposterous.”

Comey faces charges, including allegations that he threatened the life of former President Donald Trump through a 2023 Instagram post. The image showed seashells arranged on a beach to spell “8647.”

MAGA-aligned figures, including Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, have claimed the phrase—derived from restaurant lingo and Trump’s alleged presidential number—was a coded call for violence. However, David French, a New York Times opinion writer and frequent “Morning Joe” panelist, dismissed the assertion.

“I’m a former waiter, like a lot of people in this country, and when you say ’86’ something, you mean get rid of it,” French said. “You would hear ’86 the chocolate lava cake.’ It means we’re out of chocolate lava cake. It doesn’t mean brutally murder the cake. I mean, it’s an absurd analogy, or it’s an absurd stretch, to say this is somehow a threat.”

Willie Geist, co-anchor of “Morning Joe,” also criticized MAGA supporters who previously condemned the “weaponization of government” under President Joe Biden but remained silent in this case.

“I mean, here it is right in front of you,” Geist said. “Not to mention just the abject waste of time to have the acting attorney general, the head of the FBI, investigating this, holding press conferences. Go work on the Epstein Files! Go get after the important things that are happening in this country. It’s just preposterous.”

Joe Scarborough, another “Morning Joe” host, condemned the Trump administration’s “hypocrisy” in targeting Comey, as well as MAGA figures’ outrage over a joke comedian Jimmy Kimmel made about First Lady Melania Trump last week.

“It is crazy. You have, again, the hypocrisy of JD Vance, hypocrisy of all these so-called Free Speech warriors,” Scarborough said. “I await the reams and reams of stories that will be coming out of The Free Press about indicting somebody for seashells, or trying to pull ABC’s license for somebody telling a joke that has probably been told in the Catskills and in comedian clubs for 100 years about an Autumn-Spring romance.”

Scarborough acknowledged Comey’s Instagram post was “ill-advisable” but emphasized that the Supreme Court has already addressed similar free speech issues.

“It was ill-advisable. It was probably a stupid thing for him to do,” Scarborough added. “But at the same time, again, the Supreme Court’s already spoken on this issue. All of these hypocrites in MAGA world that have just clutched their pearls and fallen on their fainting couches time and time again about, ‘Oh, the Left doesn’t respect free speech.’ We said the same thing on college campuses. We agree!”

The hosts also pointed to the broader implications of the case, with Scarborough concluding:

“But their response to that is to not respect Free Speech and literally arrest people for taking a picture of seashells and putting it up on [social media].”