How long have MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski been telling us that Donald Trump is an existential threat, that he is a Hitler-esque figure, that he is a fascist, that women will die if he gets elected? Well, they have done a 180 on the matter – and that 180 comes as their ratings circle the bowl.
How It Started
After being buddy-buddy with Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 election, Joe and Mika flipped the script once Scarborough did not get the VP nod he was hoping for. They have spent the last eight years in the ‘Trump is a threat to Democracy’ camp, regularly calling him a “dark, dismal fascist” and “an aging bullshit artist.”
Brzezinski branded Trump a “hateful, racist, bigoted, tired, aging… branding-obsessed narcissist” and said anyone voting for him was choosing to “ruin this country.” Scarborough, meanwhile, claimed the forty-fifth president would “execute whoever he’s allowed to imprison” and said Trump supporters are “knowingly voting for a fascist [and] racist.”
That is just a sampling, and those of you have been listening to The Megyn Kelly Show the last several years know there is a lot more where that came from.
How It’s Going
This morning, however, it was the dawn of a new day on MSNBC as Joe and Mika announced that they had traveled to Mar-a-Lago for an audience with Trump. Here is a bit of what they had to say on the matter:
BRZEZINSKI: Joe and I went to Mar-a-Lago to me personally with President-elect Trump. It was the first time we have seen him in seven years… What we did agree on was to restart communications… In this meeting, President Trump was cheerful. He was upbeat. He seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues… And for those asking why we would go speak to the president-elect during such fraught times – especially between us – I guess I would ask back, why wouldn’t we?… Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him…
SCARBOROUGH: …I will tell you a lot of Democratic leaders we’ve talked to this past week since the election have told Mika and me it’s time for a new approach…
BRZEZINSKI: …Hyperbole and personal attacks will not work. My hair on fire doesn’t work. We’ve all seen that. What also does not work is threatening political opponents with arrest, harassment, and even jail. That is a failed path… This will be a consequential presidency. The question is whether it will be constructive… As for us, we also let him know that we will continue to speak truth to power and push back hard when called for as we have with all presidents…
SCARBOROUGH: …Don’t be mistaken. We’re not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump. We’re here to report on him.
I searched for a way to respond appropriately. I called on my 10 years as a litigator in addition to my now 20 years as a journalist, and I think I found the perfect phrase: Go f-ck yourselves. Go f-ck yourselves, you dishonest jokes of faux journalists.
What an absurd farce that was. Which one was insincere – ‘he’s Hitler’ or ‘now, we’re going to speak truth to power and find a way of speaking to and working with Donald Trump’? Which one was a lie?
‘They Are Grifters’
I never thought I would utter these words, but I agree with Keith Olbermann. Keith Olbermann’s reaction to this is my reaction, at least in part. He posted a series of tweets on X, including: “I told you so. @joenbc and @morningmika – Trump collaborators Not a word Mr. and Mrs. Vichy Quisling say can ever be trusted again – not that those words ever should have been trusted. They are confidence tricksters – and grifters.”
That is exactly right. They are grifters. These two worked day and night to try to get Trump the nomination back in 2015 and 2016. They embarrassed themselves and sacrificed any pretense of journalistic ethics in doing it. It was true bootlicking. And then what happened? Joe Scarborough found out he was not going to be the vice presidential nominee. He had been rejected for that position, and he turned on Trump because access to power is everything to that small, little man.
He was mad he was not going to be Trump’s running mate, so they spent four years trying to go after Trump as though they had never boosted him to begin it. Then, Joe Biden comes into office and they treat him like he is God. They celebrated him accordingly every morning, while demonizing Trump. Of course, they made the January 6 stuff into another 9/11 and they lied to us about Joe Biden’s mental health for years.
Joe Scarborough was the worst one on the Biden lies because he had access to him. He liked rubbing elbows with him. He felt like he had the ear of someone in power. Then came the disastrous debate and Joe Scarborough had no choice but to come out on the air the next day and acknowledge what we all saw, which is this man is totally incompetent. At the time, I called him Sybil. People of my age will know that reference to Sally Field’s character.
I will tell you, I was recently asked to be part of a debate and I was considering doing it until they told me that Scarborough had been subbed in as the person I was going to be across from. As soon as I heard his name, my answer was no. In no world would I ever appear with that cretin. He is as low as you can go in the media field, and that is saying something. He will do anything and say anything to make himself feel important.
What Comes Next?
My guest Glenn Greenwald said he thinks we are days away from Trump calling into Morning Joe like he did back in the early days of his political career. The few people who are left watching Morning Joe do not want to see that, and the Trump fans have zero desire to see that.
He doesn’t need them. They have spent years knifing him all over the back nonstop. What good comes of Trump having a renewed relationship with these absolute disgusting traitors who can’t stand him; who did their level best to stop him by throwing the most vile charges imaginable at him and then go out there and act like they are Henry Kissinger and have been asked to go to a summit to negotiate world peace?
They say, “We didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of issues, and we told him so. What we agreed on was to restart communications.” Who the hell do you think you are? Who gives two sh-ts about you two restarting communications with Donald Trump? We don’t need you. He won the presidency without you. In fact, he won it with you as a sworn enemy.
I realize Trump is trying to be magnanimous, and he is happy to watch them embarrass themselves. But I say again: There is no one who is rooting for this reconciliation. No one.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 947 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.