‘Time for a New Approach’: Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski Reveal ‘Personal’ Visit With Trump To ‘Restart Communications’
Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski opened Monday’s show with the stunning revelation that they had traveled to Florida to “meet personally” with President-elect Donald Trump on Friday in a bid to “restart communications” and set a “new approach” to their coverage of his incoming administration.
The MSNBC hosts led coverage throughout the presidential campaign that was previously critical of Trump and his rhetoric and actions.
Brzezinski began on Monday by acknowledging that many viewers, spanning “regular citizens” and “political leaders”, had expressed feeling “scared” and “dismayed” at Trump’s cabinet selections. As a result, she and Scarborough decided to reach out to Trump’s team to see if they could have “the opportunity to speak with the President-elect, himself.”
She continued: “On Friday, we were given the opportunity to do just that. Joe and I went to Mar-a-Lago to meet personally with President-elect Trump. It was the first time we have seen him in seven years.”
Scarborough, taking over the monologue to detail the conversation: “We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets. We talked about that a good bit.”
He added: “It will come as no surprise to anybody who watches this show, has watched it over the past year or over the past decade, that we didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so.”
Brzezinski then said: “What we did agree on was to restart communications.”
Justifying the decision, she continued: “My father often spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed. That is a task shared by reporters and commentators alike. We had not spoken to Trump since March of 2020, other than a personal call that Joe made after the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
She added that during the meeting with the couple Trump “was cheerful and upbeat” and that “he seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues.”
Pre-empting criticism from liberal viewers and Democrats as to why the hosts would want to speak to Trump, Brzezinski bluntly asked: “Why wouldn’t we?”
The host commented, “Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country,” adding that the Morning Joe team had expressed their “deep concerns” about Trump’s “actions and words” – relating to his rhetoric, legal issues and the January 6th Capitol riots. The host did acknowledge, however, that those issues “were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote.”
She added: “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 then spoke: “Somebody close to Donald Trump told me this past weekend, this is a president who is not seeking re-election, so maybe, just maybe now could be time for both parties to get to work.”
He added: “I don’t know. It seems to make sense for leaders of both parties to seek common ground, if it’s possible at all. I will tell you a lot of Democratic leaders we have talked to this past week since the election have told Mika and me, it’s time for a new approach. When I say top Democrats, I mean top Democrats they said we are open – this is before we talked to Donald Trump – they said, ‘Listen, we are open to working with the incoming president if the incoming president is open to working with us.’”
Brzezinski lamented that the “failed path” of “hyperbole and personal attacks will not work” and warned Trump supporters that “threatening political opponents with arrest, harassment, and even jail” would not work either.”
She continued: “We know this will be a consequential presidency. The question is whether it will be constructive. It will take a new approach from all sides, from both parties, and a leader who can bring them together and only time will tell if Donald Trump can be that leader. 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.”
“Don’t be mistaken,” Scarborough concluded, “We are not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump. We are here to report on him and to hopefully provide you insights that are going to better equip all of us in understanding these deeply unsettling times.”
Watch above on MSNBC.
