The news was so shocking that some “Morning Joe” viewers probably spit out their coffee.
MSNBC co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski “went to Mar-a-Lago to meet personally” with President-elect Donald Trump, Brzezinski revealed at the beginning of Monday’s show. The Friday rendezvous was “the first time we have seen him in seven years,” she added.
In a back-and-forth that the husband and wife co-hosts scripted ahead of time, Scarborough said, “we didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues, and we told him so.” But “what we did agree on was to restart communications,” Brzezinski said, suggesting that their behavior should be a model for others.
The meeting between Trump and the progressive cable network’s hosts — two of the most avowed anti-Trump hosts on television — immediately raised speculation about a détente with the president-elect and sparked criticism from some “Morning Joe” fans.
Veteran media critic Jeff Jarvis, a loyal “Joe” viewer, said on Threads that the meeting was a “betrayal of their colleagues, democracy, and us all. It is a disgusting show of obeisance in advance.” Others on social media vowed not to watch the show anymore, though it is impossible to measure how widespread that sentiment was.
Scarborough and Brzezinski anticipated the criticism and addressed some of it in Monday morning’s announcement.
“Don’t be mistaken. We are not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump,” Scarborough said. “We are here to report on him and to hopefully provide you insights” for “understanding these deeply unsettling times.”
The co-hosts, however, did not share many details from the Friday sit-down.
Brzezinski said Trump was cheerful, upbeat and “seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues.” She did not specify which ones.
In her explanation of the meeting, Brzezinski pointed to Trump’s election victory and said “Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but talking with him.”
That’s what they did nearly a decade ago, back before Trump first took office. Scarborough, a former Florida congressman, was an old friend of Trump’s and a welcome guest at Mar-a-Lago. When Trump entered the presidential race in 2015, he frequently called into “Morning Joe” and schmoozed with the hosts.
“You guys have been supporters, and I really appreciate it,” Trump said during one of the televised chats, the morning after he won the New Hampshire primary in 2016.
Scarborough also gave Trump campaign advice during the Republican primary and called him a “masterful politician.”
Trump craved support and praise from the insider crowd that “Morning Joe” cultivated. But the relationship was rocky at times because Scarborough and others on “Morning Joe” criticized some of Trump’s conduct, like the candidate’s December 2015 proposal to ban Muslims “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” Scarborough once cut off a live interview with Trump when the candidate rambled in defense of the proposal. Other times, however, Trump was welcome to talk at length, and he bragged about being a ratings magnet.
Inside MSNBC, Scarborough’s cozy relationship with Trump was a source of discomfort, as CNN reported at the time. When Trump called “Morning Joe” his “supporters,” Scarborough went out of his way to disagree, and said “we’ve been very critical of his approach toward Muslims, we said he went too far on John McCain, we said he went too far on you name it.”
Trump invited Scarborough and Brzezinski to lunch at the White House in early 2017 – but according to Scarborough’s account afterward, “he screamed at me after we had lunch, because we were being so hard” on him.
The relationship turned downright hostile by the summertime when Trump made hateful comments about the co-hosts on Twitter. He claimed that when they came to Mar-a-Lago around New Year’s, Brzezinski “was bleeding badly from a face-lift.” Photos from that time did not show any blood or bandages on Brzezinski’s face.
MSNBC responded to the president by saying “it’s a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job.”
The ugliness continued for years. Trump’s defenders said he was just fighting “fire with fire” because “Morning Joe” was so critical of him. His detractors said he was acting unfit for the presidency. On several occasions he pushed a debunked conspiracy theory that portrayed Scarborough as a murderer.
It is unknown if any of that history came up at Mar-a-Lago last Friday.
Trump told Fox News on Monday that Scarborough called him “requesting a meeting.”
“Many things were discussed, and I very much appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication,” he said. “In many ways, it’s too bad that it wasn’t done long ago.”
Trump, who recently said he wouldn’t mind if journalists covering him were shot at and has repeatedly threatened to strip television networks of their broadcast licenses over coverage he disliked, also told Fox he thought it was “very important, if not vital, to have a free, fair and open media or press.”
“While many others are calling for meetings, I am not looking for retribution, grandstanding or to destroy people who treated me very unfairly, or even badly beyond comprehension,” Trump asserted. “I am always looking to give a second and even third chance, but never willing to give a fourth chance — that is where I hold the line.”
CNN’s Kate Sullivan contributed reporting.
