"They’re sell-outs and don’t deserve attention" — Internet reacts to Morning Joe turning off replies to tweets since alleged Trump meeting fallout
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski - the Morning Joe hosts from MSNBC - visited Donald Trump in his primary residence at the Mar-a-Lago estate last week. This comes after the co-hosts have remained the President-elect's fiercest critics since 2016.
Several netizens have called the Morning Joe co-hosts out for their trip, calling them "sell-outs." Their critics also include several left-wing viewers who are already calling for a boycott of the network, Fox News reported.
Some netizens claim that they won't be watching the Morning Joe show anymore, while others have branded their Mar-a-Lago trip as an attempt to "kiss the ring".
"Cancel them. Make it Morning Willie." - wrote an X user.
"No, it’s not going over very well and if he thinks doubling down is going to get him more viewers, he’s out of his mind. We’re not coming back." - commented another.
"The clip on here of Joe spinning his and Mika's little trip to kiss the ring, is quite nauseating, BUT the most sickening is the regulars still showed up. None of them should ever be listened to again." - replied a third one.
"Funny! Joe Scarborough said he does not have Twitter so he is unaware of any controversy surrounding their pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago." - posted another netizen.
"The people are demanding authenticity." - commented a fifth user.
"I mean, I get why this is funny but is it really that important what a show that gets 170k viewers a day is doing? More people watch something on Discovery channel called 'Sin City Tow' reruns than watching Morning Joe." - added a sixth one.
Sunny Hostin criticized the Morning Joe hosts for their meeting earlier this week
Social media is not the only place Scarborough and Brzezinski have received a backlash from. On Monday, November 18, Sunny Hostin - a co-host on The View - said on her show:
"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 truth."
Hostin further added that the Morning Joe co-hosts were "maybe" not journalists in the true sense.
The co-host went on to say that journalists needed to remember that it was Trump who "ushered in the era of fake news," also recounting how the President-elect had attacked three Black female journalists in the past.
Sunny Hostin concluded her statement by saying that Trump would like "nothing more than a state-sponsored media," which is why he couldn't be trusted like the other Presidents.
Morning Joe hosts claimed that their meeting with Trump was about an agreement to "restart communications"
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski had likely anticipated the backlash that they could potentially receive about their Mar-a-Lago meeting with Donald Trump, and addressed their viewers about it on the Monday episode, alongside the announcement.
Scarborough told his viewers on Monday that the intention of their Mar-a-Lago trip was not to defend the President-elect or normalize his actions, but instead to "report on him" and to get insights to help them better understand "these deeply unsettling times."
Brzezinski added that they didn't see eye-to-eye with Trump on "a lot of issues," which they also told him in the meeting. The presenter further revealed that they went over subjects of "abortion, mass deportation, and threats of retribution against political opponents and media outlets" in the meeting.
The Morning Joe co-hosts' meeting with Donald Trump was later described by them as an agreement to "restart communications," reported Fox News.
Donald Trump spoke to Fox News Digital about his meeting with Scarborough and Brzezinski, calling it "extremely cordial". The President-elect added that he "appreciated" the Morning Joe co-hosts wanting to have an open conversation, claiming the meeting ended in a "very positive manner" with both parties agreeing to speak in the future.