The hosts of Morning Joe have fired back at critics of their meeting with president-elect Donald Trump, saying that the backlash is proof of a “massive disconnect between social media and the real world.”
On Monday’s (November 18) show, Joe Scarborough and his wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski revealed they had met with Trump at his Palm Beach residence, Mar-a-Lago. “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,” Brzezinksi said.
The announcement received immediate backlash, with former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann calling Scarborough and Brzezinski “confidence tricksters” and “grifters.” Meanwhile, media critic Jeff Jarvis called the meeting a “betrayal of their colleagues, democracy, and us all. It is a disgusting show of obeisance in advance.”
Jon Stewart also blasted the Morning Joe hosts on Monday’s edition of The Daily Show. The late-night host played a clip of Brzezinksi saying, “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?”
“Uh… Because you said he was Hitler,” Stewart responded.
Related‘Morning Joe’ Blasted by Keith Olbermann After Making Peace With Trump
Responding to the backlash on Tuesday’s (November 19) show, Scarborough said (per Mediaite), “I will say, first of all, thank you to everyone who was so kind last night. 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.”
“But once in a while I would get a text or call from someone going, ‘Oh, man, I hope you’re doing okay,’” Scarborough continued. “I would call them back, Eddie Glaude was one of them, I’d go: ‘Are you on Twitter?’ And he goes, ‘I am.’ I’d go ‘Well I’m not so we’ve had a good day. Mika had a wonderful event and it’s fantastic.’ All of us will do the best we can do and we’re all working towards a better America.”
“Take it day by day, people,” Brzezinski added.
You can see a clip of Joe and Mika speaking on Morning Joe here on mediate.com.
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