Joe Scarborough just surrendered to Trump--but we never, ever will!
We will take the fight to Trump--every day!
I thought it was an article from, The Onion. That was my first reaction when I saw the headline Monday morning that Morning Joe hosts’ Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski had travelled to Mar-A-Lago over the weekend to meet with Donald Trump and declared it was a, “Time for a New Approach.” But it wasn’t. It was real. Joe and Mika had surrendered to Donald Trump--like countless other elites in history had done when confronted with a “strongman” coming to power.
As I wrote about last month, numerous billionaires had flip flopped just like this—first declaring after Jan. 6 that they were done with Trump, only to support him in 2024 because it was in their best financial interest to do so. But Scarborough was one of the leaders in cable news sounding alarms that Trump was a fascist leader in the same vein as Hitler. Literally.
Just last month, Scarborough on his MSNBC show slammed Republicans and The Wall Street Journal for turning a blind eye to what he dubbed as Trump’s “fascist” threats. The host screamed to the audience, “The grotesque fawning and rationalizing for a man who is promising in his words to be an autocrat. I’m sorry. It’s really just hard to grasp.”
He then warned, “This is an election to determine the future fate of what form of government we have and if Madisonian democracy survives.”
In another episode of his show in the run up to the election, he aired clips of Trump and others speaking at a Trump rally where they suggested the assassination attempts on Trump were the work of Democrats. An outraged Scarborough declared, “The level of un-American activity that you just saw is stunning. That is un-American.” adding, “Donald Trump knows that’s a lie.”
And just a week before the Nov 5 election, Scarborough accused Trump of wanting to execute Liz Cheney as he called on air for his producers to again show the headline that read, “TRUMP CALLS FOR CHENEY’S EXECUTION.” The host then mocked those who didn’t believe his warnings that Trump was a fascist with the comment, “They’d go, ‘Oh Joe, oh Joe,’ so condescending,” adding, “Three months later: ‘Oh, we should have listened to you.”
But here we are less than three weeks after the election that Scarborough told us pitted fascism versus democracy and he has surrendered to the fascist leader. This is the type of capitulation that others engaged in thinking it would keep the fascist from coming for them.
The most infamous example in the modern era being in 1938 when then Britain Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain along with other European leaders met in Munich and agreed to allow Hitler to acquire part of Czechoslovakia. In return, Hitler “promised” that he would not invade other nations, thus, sparing Great Britain and France from being dragged into another world war. It was after this meeting that Chamberlain—upon landing in Britain—declared this deal would yield, “Peace for our time.” In reality, it simply allowed Hitler’s forces to become stronger and one year later on September 1, 1939, the Nazi forces crossed into Poland marking the start of World War II.
Scarborough and Brzezinski are fully aware of that history. But they made a choice to travel to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump’s ring just weeks after his victory. The rationale they shared for their capitulation was that they wanted to “restart communications” and set a “new approach” to their coverage of his incoming administration.
Brzezinski explained, “My father [Zbigniew Brzezinski] often spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed.” And Scarborough added a line that sounds like something Chamberlain would have uttered, “We are not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump. We are 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.”
You have to be kidding me!! Obviously people on the left and right weren’t buying this BS as evidenced by an article in Mediaite gathering the responses slamming the two morning hosts.
It’s one thing to say we want to reach certain people who voted for Trump—especially younger people and those who voted for Democratic presidential candidates in the past—to understand why they supported Trump in 2024. But heading to Trump’s crime lair—as I call Mar-a-Lago—to meet with the convicted felon, adjudicated rapist and man who attempted a coup is indefensible.
Scarborough and Brzezinski’s meeting with Trump will not change Trump. It may, though, be the final nail in the coffin of cable news having any credibility. But the demise of cable news—and corporate media—in general has been building. This glaring example of craven, self-interest by Scarborough and Brzezinski though is jarring and will likely cause even more viewers to leave cable news.
But putting aside the corporate media angle, the far bigger issue is how we respond to Trump and the threat he poses to all of us—as we were just reminded with his dangerous and despicable picks for Attorney General and Secretary of Defense.
The answer: We need to take the fight to Trump. Period.
Ironically, Friday I was on corporate media—MSNBC’s The Reid Out with the always great Joy Reid—where she asked me what Democrats want to see from leaders. I told her that callers to my show and other Democrats on social media want: FIGHTERS!
I continued: “Democrats want a fighter. They don’t want to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. We are not going to give him any grace. We will never meet him halfway on his bigotry, sexism and cruelty. We are going to take the fight to him. We know who he is. And more importantly, we know who we are--and we are not going to compromise our values.” (See clip below)
I leave you again with an excerpt from Winston Churchill’s famous speech delivered in the House of Commons in June 1940 as World War II was ravaging the European continent. This speech inspired me when were first confronted with a Trump presidency after he won in 2016. It’s just as fitting and moving today:
“Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
We, too, shall never surrender. That must be our creed and promise for the next four years as we take the fight to Trump!!
Joe & Mika were deep supporters of T***p during his campaign and the beginning of his administration until T***p made catty remarks about Mika's plastic surgery. Joe is a Republican so I am not surprised that he has reverted to his previous condition. He and his show should be removed from the MSNBC line-up. He can go work at Fox now.
I've never watched his show, but this is bad news for MSNBC. I will continue to watch Nicholle Wallace, Joy Reid, and Rachel Maddow. Women seem to be the real fighters for truth!