The Washington Post’s media critic calls on Democrats to ‘turn off Morning Joe’ after their meeting with Trump

Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple called on Democrats to shut down MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, on Thursday after the co-hosts’ decision to meet with President-elect Donald Trump.

“The explanation was a remarkable spectacle, one that will surely play on a loop in the eventual Smithsonian Museum of Cable News History. Scarborough and Brzezinski alternated scripted elements of their game, a presentation heavy on preemptive strikes.” Wemple said, while repeatedly urging people that they felt better reading a newspaper.

The article’s headline suggested, “Five Reasons Democrats Should Turn Off ‘Morning Joe’.” The subhead criticized: “What do you get out of this morning TV news fix?” Wemple began: “And as luck would have it, it all boils down to five reasons why Democrats should turn off ‘Morning Joe.’

Brzezinski and Scarborough revealed Monday that they met with Trump for over an hour at Mar-a-Lago. Their meeting was met with criticism from the left, as the pair’s show is home to some of Trump’s biggest critics in the media.

MSNBC’s JOE SCARBOROUGH REJECTS CRITICISMS OF MEETING WITH PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP: ‘MASSIVE INTERRUPTION’

“Morning Joe” co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough revealed Monday that the pair met with President-elect Donald Trump. (Screenshot/MSNBC)

“Historians will one day look back at the various opportunities this country has had to stop Trump,” Wemple wrote. “Perhaps the best, however, came in the early months of his 2015 presidential campaign, when his hate-filled politics were clear but his base of support hadn’t quite hardened.”

The media columnist wrote that Scarborough “shaken up” with Trump in 2015 and said MSNBC’s viewers “know all too well what a Trump-‘Morning Joe’ meeting looks like.”

During Monday’s announcement, Brzezinski explained that it was time for a change in their approach to the president-elect, adding, “it starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but talking with him.”

“Why shut down a soul-searching segment of ‘Morning Joe’ for this near-revelation? Perhaps to send a signal to MSNBC’s resistance community: You may not like what you see on this show going forward. Could these people have driven ratings to dive for ‘Morning Joe ‘ immediately after Monday’s announcement?” Wemple asked.

Trump told Fox News Digital that Brzezinski and Scarborough “wanted me to have run a ‘great and flawless campaign, one for the history books,'” which I truly believe it was, but it was also a campaign where I worked for a long time and hard—perhaps longer and harder than any presidential candidate in history.”

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President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, in Mint Hill, NC (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

“Consider this development for a moment: ‘Morning Joe’ spent years denouncing Trump’s authoritarian plans and actions to its loyal audience. Then one day its hosts arrange a rally that allows Trump to make that claim,” Wemple wrote . reacting to the statement from Trump.

Wemple also noted the co-hosts’ reaction to special counsel Robert Hurr’s report on President Biden released in February, specifically his finding that Biden is a “well-meaning, older man with a bad memory.”

Scarborough called the allegations “garbage” and argued that Hurr released “irrelevant conclusions, politically charged, Trump-like rants.”

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“Continued behavior like that was no surprise given that Biden has been a supporter of the show and Scarborough has served as a sounding board for the president on private calls. That’s not to suggest that a cable news anchor would allow proximity to the power to obfuscate its newsworthiness in any way at any opportunity,” Wemple wrote.