What the hell did Joe Scarborough think was going to happen?

Joe Scarborough built an anti-MAGA audience, now he’s crazy. People hate his overtures to Trump

Festivus arrived on set three weeks early Good morning Joe on Thursday, as Joe Scarborough began to express insults at his audience. It was a bitter and condescending criticism aimed at viewers who feel outraged or even betrayed by his meeting with the president-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month.

Almost a decade of MSNBC Good morning Joe the crew was telling the audience what a horrible person Trump is. Scarborough repeatedly called him a fascist and only in April of this year said you can’t have a “meet in the middle” with someone like Trump.

These observations are correct, but it does not matter. The problem here is the change in tone from Scarborough and the co-host Mika Brzezinski as they met with Trump after his victory last month to “re-engage.” After the meeting, they told viewers they would wait to see if Trump could reach out to “all sides” of the political divide and become “a leader who can bring them together,” as if they hadn’t spent years explaining that was impossible. When the hosts informed their viewing audience last month, viewers and almost everyone else were stunned for these reasons.

For his part, the man who tried to cancel the 2020 elections was actually acting like a dictator. Trump has suggested using the National Guard to fight the “enemy from within,” which includes “radical left-wing lunatics.” He also became deeply personal with Scarborough and Brzezinski, the latter of whom he bullied for allegedly “heavy bleeding during a facelift.” More ominously, Trump has repeatedly done so without justification hinted Scarborough killed a young staffer while working in Congress.

It’s an ugly thing, and it’s the background before which Good morning Joe operated on The show has drawn viewers who expect the hosts and guests to criticize not only Trump, but those who support him, such as Fox News.

Speaking of Fox, Scarborough on Thursday addressed the controversy that arose during his show the day before. David Froome with Atlantic influenced Trump’s nomination Pete Hegseth for the Minister of Defense. Hegseth, a former Fox News host, is clearly not the right fit for the job, but he sounded good on Trump’s favorite channel, so here we are. Froome began with a brief rebuttal to accusations that Hegseth often reeks of alcohol while on the job.

“Well, from what you can see on camera, if you’re too drunk for Fox News, you’re really, really drunk,” Froome said. said in what is – or at least was – a standard dig at rival network MSNBC, so commonplace Good morning Joe.

Later in the show, Brzezinski addressed the audience directly about this remark.

“Before we go on break, a little earlier in this block there was a comment about Fox News in our coverage of Pete Hagseth and the growing number of allegations about his behavior over the years and possible alcohol addiction or problems with alcohol, – she said. “The comment was too light-hearted for the moment we are in. We just want to make that comment as well. We want to clarify this. We have differences in coverage with Fox News, and that’s a good debate we should have often. But right now, I just want to say that there are a lot of good people at Fox News who care about Pete Hagseth, and we want to leave it at that.”

Surprisingly, Brzezinski’s comments appeared to be aimed more at fending off Fox News than anything to do with Hegseth, even though that candidate was Frum’s primary target. Her remark about “a lot of good people” at Fox is interesting for reasons I’ll get into in a moment.

A few hours later, in the article titled “The Sound of Fear on Air,” Froome revealed that the producer berated him during the show.

“During the next commercial break, a producer spoke in my ear. He took issue with my comments about Fox and warned me not to repeat them,” he wrote. “I said something optional and got another warning.”

He later added: “It is a very ominous thing if our leading forums for the discussion of public affairs already feel the chill of intimidation and respond with efforts to appease.”

Not surprisingly, Scarborough addressed the incident on Thursday’s program. At the same time, he again defended the visit to Mar-a-Lago.

“You can do two things at once,” he thundered. “You can say he had fascist rhetoric and still go in and talk to him. Do you know why I do this?” he went on. “To read a person.”

Then, in a condescending tone, Scarborough said that for this reason he was meeting with various political leaders.

“Do you know why I do this?” he said, his voice boiling with contempt. “To find out about the leader, to find out where the country is going so I can come back here and talk to you guys and let you know what the hell is going on!”

“For context and understanding,” Brzezinski repeated.

“And give you context and understanding and background,” he continued. “You know everyone on this show is a reporter! This is what they do every day!”

It’s annoying. Trump is an evil demagogue who craves power and has no regard for norms or laws. There is nothing to “read” about this person – especially at the age of 78 Good morning Joe the hosts said the same thing, but now not only have they changed their minds, but they are angry that they were called out on it.

Scarborough was also indignant about Frum’s dust.

“What was the headline?” he said. “The sound of fear. It wasn’t a sound of fear, it was a sound of politeness.”

The presenter continued to complain that in the political discourse “civility is confused because of fear”.

About that “civilization”.

In April, Scarborough blasted the “women on Fox News” for calling him a liberal, saying he’s been a conservative since “they played with Barbies.” For good measure he is is considered their “little idiots”. And just last month, he said Fox News viewers were “too stupid” to identify the Republican senator’s disingenuous comments. This is only a tiny part of his performance against Fox and its viewers.

There is speculation as to why Scarborough and Brzezinski are suddenly interested in a “reset” with Trump and acting “politely.” Neither possibility bodes well.

Days after Good morning Joe The presenters revealed that they had met with Trump, CNN reported report — which Scarborough and Brzezinski deny — that they fear being targeted by Trump when he takes office again. That would be an understandable concern, but if true, it would just mean Good morning Joe compromised. Experts can’t really cover a person if they fear that person to the point of seeking a meeting to see if they’ll get in trouble for bad words.

But let’s assume the anchors are telling the truth when they say they’re not afraid of Trump. In this case, the explanation is much worse, because it would mean that they have been disingenuous in their comments about Trump all these years. He’s not so bad after all, they insist, claiming he’s an incorrigible fascist for whom there is no “meeting in the middle.”

At this point, it’s worth noting that MSNBC and several other networks are up broke away by Comcast into a new entity separate from NBC News. To say there is uncertainty about the network would be an understatement. It’s possible the anchors are softening their tone and hoping that a less edgy version of themselves will make them worth keeping or even rewarding in the next phase of MSNBC’s existence, whatever that looks like in another Trump era.

This is an opinion. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.