Well, isn’t this rich? Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski—MSNBC’s dynamic duo of Trump criticism—are now cozying up for a face-to-face with the man they’ve spent years labeling a “threat to democracy.”
On Monday, the Morning Joe co-hosts revealed they met with President-elect Donald Trump last week, pitching it as a noble exercise in bridge-building. Excuse the skepticism, but coming from two of Trump’s loudest detractors, this sudden push for dialogue feels a lot like a public relations pivot.
Mika framed the meeting with a lofty comparison to her father, diplomat Zbigniew Brzezinski, who “spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed.” Sure, Mika. Chatting with Trump over coffee is basically the same as Cold War diplomacy. She added that reporters and commentators have a “shared task” to engage with those they oppose. It’s a noble sentiment—but where was this energy when MSNBC gleefully torched Trump for four years straight?
Scarborough, who left the Republican Party in a dramatic huff back in 2017, claimed the meeting covered topics like abortion, deportation, and Trump’s supposed threats against political opponents. Apparently, they didn’t see “eye to eye,” but Trump was “cheerful” and willing to find common ground with Democrats. The irony here? Scarborough and Brzezinski were very vocal about their disdain for NBC hiring Trump ally Ronna McDaniel earlier this year, yet now they’re spinning their meeting with Trump as a brave move toward reconciliation. Convenient.
Mika, anticipating backlash from her liberal audience, offered a preemptive defense, asking, “Why wouldn’t we?” She insisted the meeting was about healing divides and addressing the issues that led nearly 80 million Americans to return Trump to the White House. But let’s not forget: the same Morning Joe team once characterized those voters as enablers of authoritarianism. Funny how winning the popular vote—the first for a Republican in 20 years—has a way of forcing certain people to the table.
The cherry on top is Scarborough’s suggestion that this could be an opportunity for “both parties to get to work.” What a revelation! It only took a resounding Trump victory for Scarborough to rediscover bipartisanship. And yet, the same show that’s now touting dialogue and understanding actively cheered when McDaniel’s MSNBC contract was terminated after just a week. So much for inclusivity.
The left and the right both pointed out how shameless this is:
More than any other media hosts these two are responsible for the Dem party’s disastrous obsession with Liz Cheney NeverTrumpers over the working class and the destruction of the class first Bernie movement. Now that they’ve helped usher the fascists in they go and kiss the… https://t.co/MzdkgAKEC6
— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) November 18, 2024
These two are so utterly shameless. https://t.co/WdnitZvd2A
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) November 18, 2024
In typical MSNBC fashion, the pair closed by insisting they’re not “normalizing” Trump—just trying to understand these “deeply unsettling times.” Translation: they’ve figured out which way the political winds are blowing, and they’re hedging their bets. Call it what you want, but the pivot is hard to miss.
