‘Disgusting but frankly unsurprising’: ‘Morning Joe’ hosts criticised for ‘opportunistic’ meeting with Donald Trump – Times of India

MSNBC employees are expressing outrage towards “Morning Joe” presenters Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski following their disclosure of a recent meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
An MSNBC staff member told Fox News Digital, “Cowardice. Doing exactly what [anti-Trump historian] Tim Snyder warns on our air not to do: obey in advance. It’s disgusting but frankly unsurprising.”
The insider indicated that MSNBC staff now regard the morning programme hosts with contempt, viewing their actions as opportunistic.
The criticism has spread to social platforms. MSNBC contributor Jennifer Rubin expressed disgust on Bluesky, whilst host Katie Phang posted on X, “Normalizing Trump is a bad idea. Period.”
“Katie Phang is right. It’s normalisation (and it’s access bulls—),” the MSNBC employee shared with Fox News Digital. “Journalists don’t need access to their subjects to hold them to account. None of it is believable. The obvious answer is believable: they are opportunists.”
The source suggests MSNBC faces potential viewer backlash over the Mar-a-Lago meeting, with some supporters already calling for boycotts.
“This feels serious,” they noted. “I can’t imagine [parent company] Comcast minds this development. But the MSNBC people do.”
A different network source defended the meeting to Fox News Digital, finding the criticism peculiar given that the hosts challenged Trump’s positions and rhetoric.
“Not sure when going in to voice concerns about threats against journalists and politicians was a bad thing,” they said.
Scarborough addressed potential criticism on Monday morning. “We’re not here to defend or normalise Donald Trump,” he informed viewers. “We’re 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.”
Scarborough and Brzezinski, once friendly with Trump during the 2016 GOP primary, became strong critics after his presidency began.
The recent meeting marked their first encounter with Trump in seven years. They discussed various issues including abortion, deportation, and political retribution threats. The hosts described it as an attempt to “restart communications.”
“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?” Brzezinski explained. “Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country. We have been as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump’s actions and words in the coarsening of public debate.
“But for nearly 80 million Americans, election denialism, public trials, January 6, 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 realize it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him,” he added.
Trump described the meeting as “extremely cordial” to Fox News Digital on Monday. “I received a call from Joe Scarborough requesting a meeting for him and Mika, and I agreed that it would be a good thing if such a meeting took place,” Trump said. “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.”
“The meeting ended in a very positive manner, and we agreed to speak in the future,” he concluded.