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Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with President-elect Donald Trump last week for the first time in seven years, the Morning Joe co-hosts (and passionate lovers) revealed on Monday. The MSNBC duo described Trump, whom they have repeatedly denounced on their show as a "racist" and a "fascist" in the mold of Adolf Hitler, as "cheerful" and "upbeat" and "interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues." They didn't "see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues" but agreed to "restart communications."
Trump confirmed the meeting in an interview with Fox News. He said Scarborough and Brzezinski "congratulated me on running a 'great and flawless campaign, one for the history books,' which I really believe it was." Trump said he expected other prominent journalists to follow suit—even the "extremely hostile" ones—and reiterated his "obligation to the American public, and to our country itself, to be open and available to the press," so long as he is "treated fairly."
MSNBCNews of the meeting came amid speculation that a second Trump term could portend the demise of MSNBC in its current form. Ratings declined by as much as 50 percent in the days following Trump's victory. Last month, the network's parent company, Comcast, revealed it was considering spinning off MSNBC and other declining TV assets into a separate entity. Comcast's stock price jumped in response to the announcement, suggesting many investors were eager to see the company cut ties with the radical left-wing network that many consider to be a cesspool of partisan invective and racial grievance.
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Many MSNBC viewers, who often complain that other, more "mainstream" media outlets aren't doing enough to promote partisan invective and racial grievance, were stunned to learn the Morning Joe hosts had met with Trump. Some, including MSNBC weekend host Katie Phang, lashed out at Scarborough and Brzezinski for "normalizing" the once-and-future president. "Morning Joe going to [Mar-a-Lago] was not a good start to the week," former congressman and #Resistance hero Adam Kinzinger wrote on BlueSky, the social networking app for MSNBC fans and other deranged liberals. Former Hillary Clinton strategist Adam Parkhomenko slammed the meeting as a "pathetic betrayal." Liberal social media personality @JoJoFromJerz agreed. "Fuck Joe & Mika," she wrote. "Fuck Morning Joe. And fuck MSNBC if they keep them on the fucking air."
Saner observers argued that by meeting with Trump, the Morning Joe hosts were desperately trying to save MSNBC from irrelevance (or worse). The network and its roster of increasingly unhinged personalities—Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, Nicolle Wallace, and Chris Hayes, among others—have become a potential liability not just for Comcast but also for the Democratic Party. In the wake of Trump's election, many Democrats have criticized the party and its defenders for using hysterical rhetoric that alienates normal Americans.
Going to Mar-a-Lago was presumably humiliating for Scarborough and Brzezinski, whose animosity towards Trump dates back to the 2016 election. The hosts initially cultivated a close relationship with Trump, who boosted their ratings by regularly calling into their show. That relationship soured after Trump secured the Republican nomination and reached its nadir in 2017 after Trump won the presidency. Trump raged against "Psycho Joe" and "low I.Q. Crazy Mika" for their biased coverage. He claimed to have seen Brzezinski "bleeding badly from a facelift" and urged NBC to investigate a "mystery" in Scarborough's past, likely referring to the female staffer found dead in the former congressman's office in 2001.
Twitter/XMSNBC's (many, many) critics, meanwhile, could not help but find the whole thing amusing. "Hitler getting a lot more meeting requests than I would’ve thought," wrote Scott Jennings, CNN's token Republican pundit. Free Press columnist Eli Lake wondered why Trump would even bother meeting with Joe and Mika "other than to urge them to seek mental health counseling."
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