Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough defended he and wife Mika Brzezinski‘s meeting with Donald Trump, claiming that he was “flooded with phone calls from people all day” despite an online backlash.
“Yesterday saw for the first time what a massive disconnect there was between social media and the real world, because we were flooded with phone calls from people all day, literally around the world, very positive, very supportive,” Scarborough told viewers.
Scarborough said on Monday that he and Brzezinski met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, in what they described as a “restart” of their communication with the president elect. They said that the meeting was an opportunity to raise concerns about Trump’s attacks on the media, among other things, but word of their detente quickly sparked an online backlash.
On X, media critic Jeff Jarvis called the Morning Joe-Trump meeting a “betrayal of their colleagues, democracy, and us all. It is a disgusting show of obeisance in advance.”
Scarborough did get some backup from MSNBC personality Al Sharpton, who said that Trump “is going to be the president. If you can meet with him, meet with him. That, to me, is no different than when people said to me, ‘Why would Kamala Harris go talk to [Fox News anchor] Bret Baier?” Sharpton, though, said that Trump called him after he won in 2016, but he would not meet with him because “I felt that it would be a photo op.”
“What we need to do is deal with the issues that [are ] going to impact people,” Sharpton said, adding that he hoped that Scarborough would raise the issue with Trump why no Black people have been nominated to his cabinet.
“Rather than who’s talking, let’s deal with what we’re talking about,” Sharpton said.
In recent years, the Morning Joe hosts have been harsh critics of Trump, comparing his rise to that of fascism. Trump, meanwhile, trumpeted the meeting as one in which they congratulated him for his victory in the presidential election.
Trump told Fox News Digital that at the meeting, “many things were discussed, and I very much appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication. In many ways, it’s too bad that it wasn’t done long ago.”
Trump also told Fox News Digital that “in order to Make America Great Again, it is very important, if not vital, to have a free, fair and open media or press.” But he also couched his comments in how he sees he is being treated. He told Fox News Digital that he feels he has “an obligation to the American public, and to our country itself, to be open and available to the press.”
“If not treated fairly, however, that will end. The media is very important to the long-term success of the United States of America.”
The president-elect also said that he is open to other meetings with critics, but he also gave a warning.
Trump said that “while many others are calling for meetings, I am not looking for retribution, grandstanding or to destroy people who treated me very unfairly, or even badly beyond comprehension. I am always looking to give a second and even third chance, but never willing to give a fourth chance — that is where I hold the line.”
The Morning Joe meeting with Trump raised alarm on social media that MSNBC was trying to get in the president-elect’s good graces, given that the president-elect has made the network a frequent target of attacks, as well as its parent, Comcast.
On CNN, John Berman, filling in for Abby Phillip on NewsNight on Monday, opened the show by telling viewers, “I’m John Berman. You night know me from a cable morning show, though not the one that might soon have a Defense Secretary who paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault, nor the one that just sent two anchors to Mar-a-Lago then talked about it like it was the Yalta summit.”
