“Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with President-elect Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago on Friday, agreeing to restart communication between the three of them for the first time since March 2020.
“For those asking why we would speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, I would ask back: Why wouldn’t we?” Brzezinski asked viewers Monday morning, adding that the hosts realized “it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but talking with him.”
Trump told Fox News that it was Scarborough who called to request the meeting, which he described as “extremely cordial.”
“Many things were discussed, and I very much appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication,” Trump told Fox News Monday. “In many ways, it’s too bad that it wasn’t done long ago.”
While this is the first face-to-face meeting Trump has had with the popular cable hosts in seven years, the president-elect has maintained an on-again off-again relationship with Scarborough and Brzezinski dating back years. They’ve publicly feuded on numerous issues, including when Trump called Brzezinski “low I.Q. Crazy” and Scarborough a “Psycho” in a pair of tweets in 2017, drawing backlash.
Trump’s feud with the morning show duo has at times extended beyond personal insults. The incoming president in 2020 floated a conspiracy theory that Scarborough was involved in the 2001 death of a staffer when he was a member of Congress. Though the then-president publicly suggested the staffer had been murdered, an autopsy at the time showed she had an undiagnosed heart condition and had died after falling and hitting her head. Scarborough was in Washington at the time of her death.
But the married hosts of MSNBC’s flagship morning program appear ready to turn the page, though they committed to viewers they would continue to hold Trump accountable, including Scarborough saying they will not “defend or normalize Donald Trump.”
“In this meeting, President Trump was cheerful. He was upbeat. He seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues,” Brzezinski said. Scarborough also echoed the need for a path to working with Trump, and he said Democrats in Washington agree.
“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,” he said. “And when I say top Democrats, I mean top Democrats.”
In the interview with Fox News, Trump said he thinks similar meetings “will take place with others in the media, even those that have been extremely hostile.” He said that there’s an obligation “to the American public, and to our country itself” for the president “to be open and available to the press.”
“If not treated fairly, however, that will end,” Trump said. “The media is very important to the long-term success of the United States of America.”
