‘Morning Joe’ hosts meet Trump after years of bitter criticism, Internet says they ‘kissed the ring’

WASHINGTON, DC: The co-hosts of MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ have been trashed by many after they claimed to have met Donald Trump following his 2024 election win.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski shared the news with their audience on the Monday, November 18, episode of 'Morning Joe', per The Daily Beast.

The duo was once close with the president-elect but during his first term, they became his staunch critics. 

About their Friday, November 15, meeting with Trump in Palm Beach, Brzezinski said, “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.”

'Morning Joe' hosts meet president-elect Donald Trump

Joe Scarborough shared that he and Mika Brzezinski spoke on many issues with Donald Trump, like “abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets".

He stated, “It’s going to come as no surprise to anybody who watches this show, has watched it over the past year or over the past decade that we didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of issues and we told him so.”

Brzezinski then added, “What we did agree on was to restart communications. 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, and 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?”

The morning show hosts also noted that though they have been “as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump’s actions and words”, they decided to do things differently this time.

“And that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him,” Brzezinski, 57, said.

Trump also shared his views after meeting Scarborough and Brzezinski with Fox News Digital.

He 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 78-year-old politician also claimed that the husband-wife duo “congratulated me on running a ‘great and flawless campaign, one for the history books', which I really believe it was".

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski labeled ‘opinion journalists’

However, the sudden and apparent cordial meeting between Donald Trump and 'Morning Joe' hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski has left many appalled.

Former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said on ‘Nikki Haley Live’, “Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough tore me up when I said anything about voting for Donald Trump or what I agreed with him on, even though I criticized him when I thought he was wrong. I praised him when I thought he was good. They tore me up.”

“But the truth is, it's not that they suddenly saw the light. It's that they saw the ratings,” she alleged, as reported by Newsweek.

Scarborough and Brzezinski were also called out by the co-host of ‘The View’ Sunny Hostin, who said, as per The Independent, “I don’t think you need to sit down for 90 minutes at Mar-a-Lago and kiss his ring to be able to speak the truth.”

She also accused them of not being “journalists in the true sense".

“Maybe they’re saying that they’re ‘opinion journalists’, but we have to remember that Trump is the guy who ushered in the era of fake news,” Hostin asserted.

Conservative media personality Megyn Kelly described Scarborough and Brzezinski as “grifters”, as reported by The Hill.

“They’re grifters. These two, yes, worked day and night to try to get Trump the nomination back in ’15,’16. They embarrassed themselves and sacrificed any pretense of journalistic ethics in doing it. It was true bootlicking,” she added.

Internet slams Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski over Mar-a-Lago meeting

Political commentator Keith Olbermann tweeted, “To political reporters, commentators, liberals, moderates: After this fawning, humiliating, network-destroying surrender, if you go on @Morning_Joe you have endorsed and bought into #VichyMSNBC.”

An X user commented, “Disgraceful, but to be honest not shocked.”

Another user said, “Pathetic...kiss the ring? How could they???? After what he said about them? They are as bad as Ted Cruz…”

“@joenbc @morningmika you two might just as well get a job at Faux News,” a critic remarked.

“I promise to not watch them or the entire network,” a user wrote.

A tweet read,  “Opportunistic.”

An individual added, “Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski didn’t go to Mar-a-Lago to achieve unity with Trump. They went because their network is down 50% viewership and is on the verge of being sold — so they went and kissed the ring. Total Trump victory.”

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.