By Berl Falbaum
It is time to say “Good Night” to “Morning Joe,” the famous cable political talk show.
Its hosts, Joe Scarborough, and his wife, Mika Brzezinski, revealed on a recent show, that they visited Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, apparently to make “peace” with the man they condemned relentlessly.
They constantly warned that a second Trump term would threaten the nation’s democracy.
Bottom line: There goes their credibility — every last bit of it.
Brzezinski explained that they met with Trump to “restart communications, stating: “We didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so.”
That’s good to hear but that is not the role of political analysts. Trump certainly knew from their broadcasts that they had some “differences” with him.
Obviously, the two reached out to Trump because they wanted access to him and his aides in the next four years and, perhaps, even more important, feared retaliation from the president-elect when he takes office in January.
It is also obvious that, sadly, they will be much more “lenient” in their analysis so as not to anger Trump once he returns to the White House.
Brzezinski said it was time to do “somewhat different.” She did not define what that means but we can be confident they will never again call Trump a threat to democracy.
She also added that for “…nearly 80 million Americans, election denialism, public trials, January 6th were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote.”
Her point? Not very clear other than she implies that now she shares the view that an insurrection, trying to overturn an election, etc., are not threats to democracy.
For Trump, it appears the meeting already has paid dividends.
Forgotten was that Trump referred to Scarborough as “Psycho Joe” (his wife, “Crazy Mika”) and the fact that Trump accused him of murdering an aide who died after a fall.
Scarborough, at the time of the accident, was in another state.
This is reminiscent of Trump’s accusation that the father of Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz was involved in the assassination of John Kennedy. Cruz also ended up making nice-nice with Trump.
Jeff Jarvis, an internet media critic, posted that the meeting was “a disgusting show of obeisance in advance.”
“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin said, “I don’t think you need to sit down ... at Mar-a-Lago and kiss his ring to be able to speak truth and be able to cover a story.”
Scarborough claimed he received support for reaching out to Trump in emails and phone calls from “literally around the world.” We assume that includes the Antarctica, Asia, Europe, and all the 200 member countries in the U.N. We’ll take a wild guess and suggest that these calls of support from “throughout the world” might have come from Trumpites.
That statement by Scarborough strongly indicates that his conversion has already begun. It sounds so much like what Trump would say, i.e. the best in the history of the world, the greatest ever achieved, etc.
Indeed, in a public statement about the meeting, Trump said the two congratulated him on his campaign, “one for the history books.”
Brzezinski also defended the meeting by comparing it to the work of her father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was national security adviser in the Carter administration.
“My father,” she said, “spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed. That is the task shared by reporters and commentators alike.”
No, it isn’t. Her father worked to maintain peace and form alliances to avoid tragic consequences for the world. He was a mediator, trying to achieve conciliations and compromises to assure the security of the U.S.
Need we explain that is not the role of political analysts whose job it is to scrutinize politicians and public policy issues as independently and objectively as possible. There are not mediators.
Just the opposite. The role of reporters and those they cover is, by design, an adversarial one. They challenge, research, prod, and contest. They do not arbitrate.
Trump’s reaction? He was all too happy to make amends with Psycho Joe and Crazy Mika. He probably can’t wait to appear on the show.
Given the circumstances, it would not be unexpected to see Scarborough and Brzezinski playing 18 at a Trump resort and, of course, purposely letting Trump win by missing 6-inch putts.
Actually, we shouldn’t be surprised by Scarborough’s political U-turn. Dozens of Republicans have traveled down the Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde political path since Scarborough once was a Republican Congressman.
————————
Berl Falbaum is a veteran journalist and author of 12 books.
It is time to say “Good Night” to “Morning Joe,” the famous cable political talk show.
Its hosts, Joe Scarborough, and his wife, Mika Brzezinski, revealed on a recent show, that they visited Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, apparently to make “peace” with the man they condemned relentlessly.
They constantly warned that a second Trump term would threaten the nation’s democracy.
Bottom line: There goes their credibility — every last bit of it.
Brzezinski explained that they met with Trump to “restart communications, stating: “We didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so.”
That’s good to hear but that is not the role of political analysts. Trump certainly knew from their broadcasts that they had some “differences” with him.
Obviously, the two reached out to Trump because they wanted access to him and his aides in the next four years and, perhaps, even more important, feared retaliation from the president-elect when he takes office in January.
It is also obvious that, sadly, they will be much more “lenient” in their analysis so as not to anger Trump once he returns to the White House.
Brzezinski said it was time to do “somewhat different.” She did not define what that means but we can be confident they will never again call Trump a threat to democracy.
She also added that for “…nearly 80 million Americans, election denialism, public trials, January 6th were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote.”
Her point? Not very clear other than she implies that now she shares the view that an insurrection, trying to overturn an election, etc., are not threats to democracy.
For Trump, it appears the meeting already has paid dividends.
Forgotten was that Trump referred to Scarborough as “Psycho Joe” (his wife, “Crazy Mika”) and the fact that Trump accused him of murdering an aide who died after a fall.
Scarborough, at the time of the accident, was in another state.
This is reminiscent of Trump’s accusation that the father of Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz was involved in the assassination of John Kennedy. Cruz also ended up making nice-nice with Trump.
Jeff Jarvis, an internet media critic, posted that the meeting was “a disgusting show of obeisance in advance.”
“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin said, “I don’t think you need to sit down ... at Mar-a-Lago and kiss his ring to be able to speak truth and be able to cover a story.”
Scarborough claimed he received support for reaching out to Trump in emails and phone calls from “literally around the world.” We assume that includes the Antarctica, Asia, Europe, and all the 200 member countries in the U.N. We’ll take a wild guess and suggest that these calls of support from “throughout the world” might have come from Trumpites.
That statement by Scarborough strongly indicates that his conversion has already begun. It sounds so much like what Trump would say, i.e. the best in the history of the world, the greatest ever achieved, etc.
Indeed, in a public statement about the meeting, Trump said the two congratulated him on his campaign, “one for the history books.”
Brzezinski also defended the meeting by comparing it to the work of her father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was national security adviser in the Carter administration.
“My father,” she said, “spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed. That is the task shared by reporters and commentators alike.”
No, it isn’t. Her father worked to maintain peace and form alliances to avoid tragic consequences for the world. He was a mediator, trying to achieve conciliations and compromises to assure the security of the U.S.
Need we explain that is not the role of political analysts whose job it is to scrutinize politicians and public policy issues as independently and objectively as possible. There are not mediators.
Just the opposite. The role of reporters and those they cover is, by design, an adversarial one. They challenge, research, prod, and contest. They do not arbitrate.
Trump’s reaction? He was all too happy to make amends with Psycho Joe and Crazy Mika. He probably can’t wait to appear on the show.
Given the circumstances, it would not be unexpected to see Scarborough and Brzezinski playing 18 at a Trump resort and, of course, purposely letting Trump win by missing 6-inch putts.
Actually, we shouldn’t be surprised by Scarborough’s political U-turn. Dozens of Republicans have traveled down the Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde political path since Scarborough once was a Republican Congressman.
————————
Berl Falbaum is a veteran journalist and author of 12 books.
