MSNBC contributor fuels 'Morning Joe' boycott after Trump meeting: They don't 'appreciate' their audience
MSNBC contributor Jennifer Rubin took aim at "Morning Joe" after its co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed they met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
MSNBC contributor Jennifer Rubin is encouraging a boycott of "Morning Joe" after its hosts revealed they had a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.
"Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, two of Trump's fiercest critics, shocked the nation on Monday by disclosing their visit to Mar-a-Lago on Friday, suggesting that reviving communications and extending an olive branch was the best path forward following Trump's historic election victory.
"Disgusting," Rubin reacted to the meeting on the social media platform Bluesky.
Rubin later ratcheted up the rhetoric, encouraging her followers to turn off "Morning Joe" to send a message.
"The market works great. You can stop watching Morning Joe anytime," Rubin wrote Monday evening.
She then followed, "On MJ: If you don't appreciate the audience you have, betray that audience and lose their trust you are [going] to lose lots of them. I have seen this movie."
Rubin, also a columnist for The Washington Post, was likely alluding to the backlash the paper received from its liberal readers last month after the Post's billionaire owner Jeff Bezos halted its endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, something Rubin, too, has been outspoken about.
Neither Rubin nor MSNBC responded to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
‘MORNING JOE’ CO-HOSTS HOLD FACE-TO-FACE MEETING WITH TRUMP FOR FIRST TIME IN SEVEN YEARS'
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."
"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?" Brzezinski 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."
LIBERALS RAGE AGAINST ‘MORNING JOE’ ‘BETRAYAL’ AFTER CO-HOSTS MEET WITH TRUMP: ‘WE WILL NOT FORGIVE’
Trump spoke with Fox News Digital on Monday about the "extremely cordial" meeting he had with the MSNBC hosts.
"I received a call from Joe Scarborough requesting a meeting for him and Mika, and I agreed that it would be a good thing if such a meeting took place," Trump said in an interview. "Many things were discussed, and I very much appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication … In many ways, it’s too bad that it wasn’t done long ago.
"The meeting ended in a very positive manner, and we agreed to speak in the future," he added.
Fox News' David Rutz and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
