'Morning Joe' co-hosts hold face-to-face meeting with Trump for first time in seven years

MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, two of Donald Trump's fiercest critics in the media, revealed Monday they had a face-to-face meeting last week with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago, saying it was an important opportunity for those who disagree to speak with each other.

"My father often spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed," Brzezinski said, referring to diplomat Zbigniew Brzezinski. "That's a task shared by reporters and commentators alike."

Friday's meeting was the first time they had seen Trump in seven years, Brzezinski said, and Scarborough added that they didn't see "eye to eye on a lot of issues, and we told him so." Scarborough said they went over such topics as abortion, mass deportation, and threats of retribution against political opponents and media outlets. The meeting, according to the hosts, was about an agreement to "restart communications."

The show added Trump was cheerful during the meeting and appeared interested in finding common ground with Democrats on major issues. Trump won a decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, sweeping the nation's battleground states and also clinching the first popular vote win for a Republican in 20 years.

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Brzezinski took a moment to respond to the viewers who may have been appalled that they would agree to speak with Trump, whom they've repeatedly described as a threat to democracy.

"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?" she said. "Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country. We have been as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump’s actions and words in the coarsening of public debate. 

"But for nearly 80 million Americans, election denialism, public trials, January 6, were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote. Joe and I realize it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him."

The defensive tone about speaking to Trump was noteworthy given "Morning Joe" was upset by NBC's hiring of Trump ally Ronna McDaniel earlier this year as a paid analyst. The show and several other MSNBC luminaries publicly spoke out against McDaniel appearing on their airwaves, and her contract was terminated after less than a week.

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Brzezinski said Trump's term would be a "consequential" presidency, but time would tell if it was "constructive." She railed against threatening political opponents and also noted that impeachments and trials tend to turn politicians into martyrs.

"Just ask Bill Clinton and Donald Trump," she said.

Scarborough noted that Trump can't seek another term so this could be an opportunity for "both parties to get to work," and claimed top Democrats had confided to him they were open to working with Trump if the feeling was mutual.

"Don't be mistaken," Scarborough said. "We're not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump. We're here to report on him and to hopefully provide you insights that are going to better equip all of us in understanding these deeply unsettling times."

That might not sit well with some of their fellow MSNBC hosts or liberal media colleagues. 

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Brzezinski also revealed Monday that Scarborough called Trump the day after the assassination attempt against him in July, but other than that, they had not even spoken since 2020. MSNBC kept "Morning Joe" off the air the Monday after the shooting in a controversial move at the time.

Scarborough and Brzezinski, who are married, stood out in the 2016 cycle for their bullishness on Trump's political chances early in the Republican primary, and they took heat for frequently hosting and interviewing the future president. But they became two of his staunchest critics once he took office and Trump at times leveled intensely personal attacks on the pair. 

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Scarborough, a former Florida U.S. congressman, left the Republican Party in 2017 over his disagreements with Trump.