Why Is Joe Scarborough Leaving Republican Party? "Morning Joe" Co-host Vows To Become Independent

MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough on Tuesday announced his exit from the Republican Party during an appearance on “The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert.”

According to a Chicago Tribune report, a two-minute clip of the episode was posted on The Late Night Show’s Twitter account in which Scarborough says: "I am a Republican, but I'm not going to be a Republican anymore. I've got to become an independent."

Read: Who Are Mika Brzezinski And Joe Scarborough? Why Is Donald Trump Attacking Them?

When asked about the condition of Republican Party, Scarborough said it was “inexplicable," adding the “GOP had betrayed their core values.”

“Back in the December of 2015 when Donald Trump supported a Muslim ban, I said on the air, it's very simple, it's black and white. I said I can never vote for anybody in my party that would say they would ban people because of the God they worshiped," Scarborough told Colbert during the show.

“Time and time and time again, they turned the other way. And they're doing the same thing now. And it's actually disgusting. And you have to ask yourself, what exactly is the Republican party willing to do? How far are they willing to go? How much of this country and our values are they willing to sell out?" Scarborough went on to say, the Hollywood Reporter reported.

Scarborough served as a Republican from Florida’s 1st district in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001. According to MSNBC’s website, Scarborough “was a part of a small group of young Republican congressmen called the ‘New Federalists’ who were said to possess a surprising amount of power given their youth and lack of years in Congress.”

He and his fiancée Mika Brzezinski recently came under fire from President Donald Trump after the pair criticized him for his leadership skills on their show. Tensions escalated further when Trump called the Morning Show hosts “Psycho Joe” and “low-I.Q. Crazy Mika.” The president further went on to say that Brzezinski “was badly bleeding from a facelift” when he saw her in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, with Scarborough last year, the Washington post reported.

Read: Twitter Reacts To Mika Brzezinski's 'Face-Lift' After Trump's 'Bloody' Comments

“Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for the first time in a long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show,” the president’s second tweet read.

“I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!” Trumptweeted June 29.