Kissing the ring? MSNBC ‘Morning Joe’ hosts declare they met with Trump to reopen lines of communication

MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, fierce critics of President-elect Donald Trump, declare they traveled to Mar-a-Lago for a conference with him to reopen lines of communication that would better serve their morning display viewers.

With feelings still raw two weeks after the election, their trip to Trump’s Florida home hasn’t gone over that well with many fans and critics of “Morning Joe.”

The display’s anchor throng had been so critical of Trump that, in September, Scarborough said that “it’s not a reach” to contrast him to Hitler. MSNBC pulled “Morning Joe” from the air the Monday after the assassination attempt on Trump this history summer.

On Monday’s display, the hosts said they had reached out to Trump last Thursday and met with him the next day. “It was the first period 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 consent on was to restart communications,” she said. Her father, the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national safety adviser in Jimmy Carter’s administration, often spoke with globe leaders he disagreed with, and she said that’s a job for journalists and commentators too.

“For those asking why we would talk to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would inquire back, ‘Why wouldn’t we?’” Brzezinski said.

Trump confirmed the conference in an interview with Fox information Digital. “I very much appreciated the truth that they wanted to have open communication,” he said. “In many ways, it’s too impoverished 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 talk truth to power and she didn’t ponder it was essential to trip to Mar-a-Lago to “kiss the ring.” A co-host, Alyssa Farah Griffin, said she thought highly of the MSNBC hosts for recognizing how many people voted for Trump.

Jeff Jarvis, author of the BuzzMachine blog and a retired journalism professor at the City University of recent York, said online that “it is a disgusting display of obeisance in advance.”

Several conservative commentators weren’t impressed either. Talk display host Buck Sexton, in a post on X, called the conference astounding. “Trump’s win is so complete, ‘Morning Joe’ has fully surrendered,” Sexton wrote. Veteran cable information 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 spectators takes a shatter. It’s a post-election pattern similar to that encounter in history years with viewers who supported the losing event. After a shatter, many usually profitability.

Neither host was available to talk to a reporter after the display, a network spokesman said. Scarborough seemed to anticipate criticism when talking about the selection to meet with Trump.

“Don’t be mistaken,” he said. “We’re not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump. We’re here to update on him and hopefully provide you with insights.”

In the same Fox information interview, Trump said that he had an obligation to the American community to be open and available to the press. “If not treated fairly, however, that will complete,” he said.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. pursue him at http://x.com/dbau der.