“Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.”
We begin with a quote from Jane Goodall. But this column is not about chimps or the natural world. It’s about the outrage monkeys now flinging feces at MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski inside the unnatural world of cable news.
The married couple and co-hosts of “Morning Joe” were in coffee klatch formation on Monday when they dropped an atomic bomb on groggy viewers: They recently met with president-elect Donald Trump. Uh-oh.
There would have been less backlash had they gone bowling with Pol Pot.
These two, who have spent years warning Trump poses existential dangers to democracy, made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to swap pleasantries over canapés? Didn’t they call Trump a fascist? Didn’t they wake up every morning to rail against Trump’s character, his ideas, his divisive agenda, his demagoguery?
What gives?
Everyone from Jon Stewart to Jeff Jarvis mocked this détente as a betrayal. Joe and Mika were accused of “kissing the ring,” “bending the knee,” “legitimizing the king,” “falling into line,” “sucking up” and “normalizing” an aspiring tyrant.
They were even shaded by MSNBC colleagues, past and present.
And I might agree if … TRUMP WAS NOT JUST ELECTED PRESIDENT.
He won the popular vote. To a majority of voters, Trump is normal. Will many end up with a bad case of voter remorse? Probably. But in the interim, it is incumbent upon journalists like Scarborough and Brzezinski to make nice with the returning leader of the free world to gain greater access and insights so they can call out the insanity sure to come.
A “Morning Joe” and Mar-a-Lago truce is not a surrender — it is a flicker of hope amid the gloom. Trump has referred to these two as “Psycho Joe” and “Crazy Mika.” He has repeated a conspiracy theory and accused Scarborough of murder.
Now he’s saying they had a great meeting on Friday? That’s fantastic.
Trump haters should think clearly before spiralling into reflexive conniptions. Do you want Mika or Laura Loomer whispering in Donald’s ear? Do you want Joe playing golf with the president or do you want the dead-eyed Stephen Miller riding in the cart with colour-coded charts of his most despised visible minorities? (Spoiler alert: he hates them all.)
Unlike Trump 1.0, the 2.0 update will not have any security tweaks to fix the bugs. Trump will by surrounded by true believers this time. But here’s the thing: as much as he denigrates the media as “fake news” or “enemy of the people,” he is obsessed with traditional outlets. He hate-loves us.
A Brzezinski-Scarborough-Trump summit is not a betrayal of the “resistance.” Let’s get real. The resistance is now futile. What’s needed is a Trojan Horse. Unlike 2016, when Trump was an outsider vowing to drain the swamp or build the wall, voters now know exactly what they are getting. So journalists like Mika and Joe have two choices: 1. Keep lambasting the guy while preaching to the MSNBC choir. 2. Normalize relations and maybe, just maybe, serve as a counterbalancing tonic to his darkest impulses.
You can’t alter a flight path if you’re not in the cockpit.
As Brzezinski told viewers this week: “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.”
Exactly. Now more than ever, it is crucial for Trump critics in the media to reopen dialogue with the leader of the free world who is otherwise flanked by bootlickers, enablers and low-IQ hotheads who yearn to exact vengeance on political enemies.
On Tuesday, CNN’s Brian Stelter, citing two anonymous sources, reported Joe and Mika’s Mar-a-Lago outreach came in part because they “were credibly concerned that they could face governmental and legal harassment from the incoming Trump administration.”
Makes sense. If there’s an Attorney General Matt Gaetz or an FBI director Kash Patel, Rachel Maddow may need to sneak into France to live under the assumed identity of Raquel Maddoux. MAGA group chats, which I sadly monitor, are currently animated with fever dreams of revoking broadcasting licences or imprisoning journalists.
MAGA hates the media more than PETA hates Morton’s.
Steve Bannon, a fellow who increasingly looks like he pours vodka on his Corn Flakes, has singled out MSNBC for retribution. So here’s what I’d ask viewers aghast this week after Mika and Joe thawed the ice with the Donald: Do you want these two speaking truth to power over the next four years? Or do you want them silenced and doing crossword puzzles in solitary confinement?
Kudos to Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for grasping the realpolitik stakes.
They can keep trashing Donald Trump. Or they can talk some sense into him.
