Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have revealed they visited president-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.
The married cohosts of MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ said on Monday they traveled ‘personally’ to meet with Trump on Friday in order to ‘restart communications and set a ‘new approach’ ahead of his second term.
Brzezinski said they decided to reach out to Trump for ‘the opportunity to speak with the President-elect, himself’ because their viewers and ‘regular citizens’ have expressed fear following Trump’s election and his recent cabinet selections.
‘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,’ Brzezinski said as she opened the show Monday.
Scarborough continued, saying the three ‘talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets.’
Trump and the ‘Morning Joe’ stars have had a contentious relationship since the Republican entered politics – with Scarborough leaving the Republican party as a result.
Unsurprisingly, Scarborough shared that they and Trump ‘didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so.’
Brzezinski revealed the last time the hosts spoke to Trump was in March of 2020 – other than when Scarborough called him after the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the summer.
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have revealed they visited president-elect Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago over the weekend
Scarborough shared that they and Trump ‘didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so’
The Morning Joe hosts and the president-elect met at Mar-a-Lago on Friday
Defending their decision, Brzezinski said: ‘For those asking why we would go speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back – why wouldn’t we?’
She added: ‘My father [diplomat Zbigniew Brzezinski] often spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed…That’s a task shared by reporters and commentators alike….
‘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.’
Brzezinski shared that Trump was cheerful during their meeting and seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats.
However, Scarborough concluded by telling viewers they will not stop their criticism of the president-elect.
‘Don’t be mistaken, he said. ‘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.’
Trump used to be routine contributor to Morning Joe, and Scarborough was an early cheerleader for the billionaire’s maverick bid for the GOP nomination in 2016.
Trump appeared on the show dozens of times before the pair fell out spectacularly during the 2016 election cycle
But relations soured as Trump pulled off a surprise victory in the Republican primaries and began to look like a serious challenger to the Democrats’ Hillary Clinton.
The four-hour morning show became a bastion of the Democratic establishment after Trump’s first term, with President Joe Biden routinely tuning in while doing his morning exercises to see his acolytes promote the party’s talking points.
With Trump in the White House and Scarborough engaged to co-host Brzezinski he began cementing his show’s identity as an outpost of opposition to the new administration.
The couple even recorded a Christmas album called ‘A Very Drumpf Christmas’ with children’s songs portraying the president as Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
It eventually attracted the attention of the president himself, who delivered a series of withering put-downs, labeling Scarborough ‘Psycho Joe’ and his then-fiancée as ‘low IQ Crazy Mika’, while mischievously claiming she had been ‘bleeding badly from a face-lift’ during a visit to his Mar-a-Lago estate.
And the feud deepened when the president revived long-debunked claims that Scarborough had been involved in the death of his former congressional staffer who was found dead on his office floor in 2001.
An autopsy found that Lori Bolterstein Klausutis, 28, had hit her head on a desk after collapsing from an undiagnosed heart-valve irregularity but Trump called for a fresh investigation into the case.
The allegations earned Trump his first rebuke from Twitter, which would eventually kick him off the platform altogether in January 2021.
During the 2024 election cycle, Morning Joe quickly rallied behind Harris’ candidacy after she usurped Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee, but showed early signs of nervousness as the move failed to produce a significant poll lead.
Scarborough was an early cheerleader of Trump’s candidacy before it appeared he could win
Morning Joe became the forum for DC’s new Democrat establishment and the most-watched morning cable news program by 2023, boosted in part by its extensive coverage of Donald Trump’s legal battles.
Following Trump’s win earlier this month Scarborough has offered up various theories as to how the Republican could defeat Harris, including blaming ‘racist Hispanics’ and ‘sexist black men.’