MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, fierce critics of President-elect Donald Trump, say they traveled to Mar-a-Lago for a gathering with him to reopen strains of communication that may greatest serve their morning present viewers.
With emotions nonetheless uncooked two weeks after the election, their journey hasn’t gone over nicely with many “Morning Joe” followers and critics.
The present’s internet hosting workforce had been so crucial of Trump that Scarborough mentioned in September that it was “not far-fetched” to match him to Hitler. MSNBC pulled “Morning Joe” from airing on Mondays after the Trump assassination try final summer time.
On Monday’s present, the hosts mentioned they contacted Trump final Thursday and met with him the following day in Florida. “It was the primary time we had seen him in seven years,” Brzezinski mentioned.
He mentioned Trump was “cheerful, optimistic,” even because the three mentioned points on which they disagreed.
“What we agreed on was restarting communications,” he mentioned. Her father, the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, a nationwide safety adviser in Jimmy Carter’s administration, typically spoke to world leaders with whom he disagreed, and she or he mentioned that was a job for journalists and commentators too.
“For those that ask why we must always converse to the president-elect in such troublesome instances, particularly amongst ourselves, I suppose I’d reply: ‘Why should not we?’” Brzezinski mentioned.
Trump confirmed the assembly in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I actually appreciated that they wished to have open communication,” she mentioned. “In some ways, it is a disgrace it wasn’t finished way back.”
Not everybody reacted the identical approach. On “The View” Monday, co-host Sunny Hostin mentioned the nation wants a free press keen to talk reality to energy and she or he did not assume it was essential to journey to Florida to “kiss the ring.”
Jeff Jarvis, writer of BuzzMachine weblog and retired journalism professor on the City University of New York, mentioned on-line that “it’s a disgusting show of early obedience.”
Even a number of conservative commentators weren’t impressed. Talk present host Buck Sexton, in a message on X, known as the assembly stunning. “Trump’s victory is so full that ‘Morning Joe’ has fully given up,” Sexton wrote. Veteran cable journalist Greta Van Susteren known as it “humiliating”.
“Morning Joe,” like many applications on MSNBC, noticed its scores drop precipitously after the election as its liberal viewers took a break. It’s a post-election sample just like that skilled in years previous with viewers supporting the dropping celebration. After a break, many normally return.
Neither host was out there to talk to a reporter after the present, a community spokeswoman mentioned. Scarborough appeared to anticipate criticism when speaking concerning the choice to satisfy with Trump.
“Don’t be flawed,” he mentioned. “We usually are not right here to defend or normalize Donald Trump. We’re right here to report on him and hopefully give you insights.
In the identical Interview with FoxNewsTrump mentioned he had an obligation to the American public to be open and out there to the press. “If not handled pretty, nevertheless, it will finish,” he mentioned.
