MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, fierce critics of President-Elect Donald Trump, say they traveled to Mar-a-Lago for a meeting with him to reopen lines of communication that would better serve their morning show viewers.
With feelings still raw two weeks after the election, their journey hasn't gone over that well with many fans and critics of "Morning Joe."
The show's anchor team had been so critical of Trump that, in September, Scarborough said that "it's not a reach" to compare him to Hitler. MSNBC pulled "Morning Joe" from the air the Monday after the assassination attempt on Trump this past summer.
On Monday's show, the hosts said they had reached out to Trump last Thursday and met with him the next day in Florida. "It was the first time we have seen him in seven years," Brzezinski said.
She said Trump was "cheerful, upbeat," even as the three of them discussed issues they disagreed on.
"What we did agree on was to restart communications," she said. Her father, the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser in Jimmy Carter's administration, often spoke with world leaders he disagreed with, and she said that's a job for journalists and commentators too.
"For those asking why we would speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back, 'Why wouldn't we?'" Brzezinski said.
Trump confirmed the meeting in an interview with Fox News Digital. "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."
Not everyone reacted the same way. On "The View" Monday, co-host Sunny Hostin said the country needs a free press willing to speak truth to power and she didn't think it was necessary to travel to Florida to "kiss the ring."
Jeff Jarvis, author of the BuzzMachine blog and a retired journalism professor at the City University of New York, said online that "it is a disgusting show of obeisance in advance."
Several conservative commentators weren't impressed either. Talk show host Buck Sexton, in a post on X, called the meeting astounding. "Trump's victory is so complete, 'Morning Joe' has fully surrendered," Sexton wrote. Veteran cable news personality Greta Van Susteren called it "groveling."
"Morning Joe," like many shows on MSNBC, has seen its ratings drop precipitously since the election as its liberal audience takes a break. It's a post-election pattern similar to that experience in past years with viewers who supported the losing party. After a break, many usually return.
Neither host was available to speak to a reporter after the show, a network spokesman said. Scarborough seemed to anticipate criticism when talking about the decision to meet with Trump.
"Don't be mistaken," he said. "We're not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump. We're here to report on him and hopefully provide you with insights."
In the same Fox News interview, Trump said that he had an obligation to the American public to be open and available to the press. "If not treated fairly, however, that will end," he said.
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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbau der.
