Of the television commentators who routinely disparaged, attacked, demeaned, and mocked former President Donald Trump and his supporters, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," belong to the "A" team.
Yet, after Trump's extraordinary victory two weeks ago, including a sweep of all seven swing states and becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote in 20 years, Scarborough and Brzezinski visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election, spending a reported 90 minutes with the president-elect.
As for why they made the trek, Brzezinski said: "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?' 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."
Neither Brzezinski nor Scarborough mentioned the most likely reason: ratings. Since Trump's victory, which several MSNBC hosts predicted would not happen, the channel's primetime viewership is down a whopping 53%. By contrast, Fox's ratings are up 38%.
The MSNBC pundits largely failed to prepare their viewers for Vice President Kamala Harris' defeat. Host Rachel Maddow, for example, all but predicted a humiliating loss for Trump. Two days before the election, Maddow devoted several minutes to the "gold standard" of polls: an Iowa poll showing Trump down three points in the Hawkeye State, where no Democratic presidential candidate has won since 2012. Gosh, Trump is down even in Iowa!
Maddow gushed: "The prototypical example of a gold standard poll is the Iowa poll done by J. Ann Selzer in Iowa. ... (H)er poll has accurately predicted the winner of the Senate and presidential races in Iowa within one or two points every time. ... (Y)ou have seen Ann Selzer basically as a living bullseye." Trump won Iowa 56% to Harris' 42.7%.
MSNBC News wrote about historian and election predictor Allen Lichtman, who supposedly has correctly predicted eight out of the last nine presidential contests. He uses "13 keys" to determine the result, eight of which he said pointed to Harris.
But back to the "Morning Joe" hosts. Roll tape:
-- May 2017
Scarborough: "And I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that if there are articles of impeachment ever drawn up, the first article of impeachment drawn up against Donald Trump will be the first article of impeachment drawn up against Richard Nixon and that is obstruction of justice, because I could find you 1,000 Republican criminal defense lawyers across America who could say what Donald Trump has admitted already on national television could rise to the level of obstruction of justice."
-- May 2017
Scarborough described to me Trump's visit to Europe with leaders as a "disaster" and said Trump looked like a "thug, goon and an idiot."
-- June 2018
Scarborough: "... (W)ho in the world would be so cruel, so hateful, who would be so despicable, who would be so utterly lacking in character, to suggest, to -- to make something up about someone having a facelift for the sole purposes of trying to damage or humiliate them. ... You would have to be utterly despicable, a classless man, to say that about a woman."
-- May 2020
Scarborough: "But there are these bizarre disconnects and they're showing up in campaign ads. There are these weird things he's saying off the cuff. Again, it's so - it is so ironic that Trump's campaign team actually go after Joe Biden for non sequiturs, for stumbling, for getting lost halfway through his sentence when --"
Brzezinski: "Or a decline."
Scarborough: "-- that's what Donald Trump has been doing now, in a very public way, for 3 1/2 years."
-- April 2024
Scarborough: "They voted for Trump in '20, they knew exactly what they were doing. If they vote for Donald Trump in 2024 ... they're knowingly voting for a fascist, they're voting for a racist ..."
Question: What's it like spending 90 minutes with a "fascist," a "thug" and a man who is "utterly despicable"? Did they bring along a food taster? But most importantly, for these Trump-hating hosts turned Mar-a-Lago guests, will their ratings improve?
Regarding declining ratings, Joe and Mika know how to turn on a dime -- to make a dime.
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