Morning Joe hosts meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, claim it’s time to 'restart communications' with leader they compared to Hitler

Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday to "restart communications."

Brzezinski began the explanation on Monday’s Morning Joe show by saying the trip was prompted because “over the past week, Joe and I have heard from so many people, from political leaders to regular citizens, deeply dismayed by several of President-elect Trump's cabinet selections, and they are scared. Last Thursday, we expressed our own concerns on this broadcast, and even said we would appreciate the opportunity to speak with the president-elect himself.” The two were invited to speak with Trump – their first conversation “in seven years.”

“We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportations, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets,” Scarborough continued, noting that they “didn't see eye to eye on a lot of issues” but that they agreed to “restart communications.”

Brzezinski noted how her father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, “often spoke with world leaders with whom he in the United States profoundly disagreed. That's a task shared by reporters and commentators alike,” she said. Brzezinski revealed that Scarborough had made “a personal call” to Trump after the Butler, PA assassination attempt. She described Trump as being “cheerful” and “upbeat” during their meeting and that he “seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues.”

Anticipating the massive pushback that was on the way, Brzezinski simply said, “Why wouldn’t we” talk to Trump since “five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country” and for a majority of Americans, Democratic distractions during the Biden-Harris administration like the Jan. 6 special committee “were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote.”

“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.”

Reaction on X was immediate and antagonistic. A cross-section of journalists, commentators and regular social media users roundly criticized the duo for hypocrisy, as the Daily Mail documented the pushback that included describing the “shamelessness” of the trip to see Trump and how it looked like they were “bending the knee.” Many reminded the MSNBC anchors that they often described Trump as a fascist and said he was another Adolf Hitler.

“Hitler getting a lot more meeting requests than I would’ve thought,” Republican strategist and CNN panelist Scott Jennings wrote while Free Press columnist Eli Lake quipped, “'Why would Trump bother talking to these people other than to urge them to seek mental health counseling?”

Washington Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York wrote, “Annals of shamelessness: They call Trump a fascist, and much, much more, and then, just 22 days after his 'Nazi-like' rally, they fly to Florida for an audience.”