“If you don’t appreciate the audience you have, betray that audience and lose their trust you are [going] to lose lots of them. I have seen this movie.”
MSNBC contributor Jennifer Rubin has urged a boycott of morning news talk show Morning Joe after co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski had a visit with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend. The two, who have compared Trump to Hitler, called him a fascist, raged against both his previous administration and recent presidential candidacy, told viewers that they needed to “restart communications” with Trump. It was a hard sell for Rubin and others who believed that the hosts said about their hatred of Trump.
"Disgusting," Rubin said on her Bluesky account. She returned to the social media platform later to not just get angry but to get even. "The market works great. You can stop watching Morning Joe anytime," Rubin wrote Monday. "On MJ: If you don't appreciate the audience you have, betray that audience and lose their trust you are [going] to lose lots of them. I have seen this movie,” she continued.
Despite receiving a barrage of criticism for their meet-up with Trump, both Scarborough – a former Republican congressman from Florida – and his wife Brzezinski appeared upbeat Tuesday morning on their daily broadcast with Scarborough claiming the reaction on X didn’t reflect “the real world” and Brzezinski telling viewers to “take it day by day.”
Many journalists leveled withering criticism at the pair for their apparent hypocrisy over Trump’s impending presidency. Former Fox News host and current independent journalist Megyn Kelly said, “Go F*ck yourselves, you dishonest jokes of faux journalists. What an absurd farce that was. Which one was insincere? He's Hitler, or now we're gonna speak truth to power and find a way of speaking to and working with Donald Trump. Which one was a lie?”
Scarborough claimed that he had received accolades for meeting with Trump. He said all the criticism on X was another example of how the social media platform does not reflect “the real world.”
Scarborough began his explanation by saying, “First of all, thank you to everyone who was so kind last night” and then talked about the difference between criticism on X and praise in real life. “Yesterday, I 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, all very positive, very supportive, [who said] ‘I understand what you did…’ etcetera, etcetera,” Scarborough said.
“All of us will do the best we can do, and we’re all working towards a better America,” Scarborough said while Brzezinski told viewers to “Take it day by day, people.”
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