Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough would just like everyone to stop suggesting his show is too cozy with Donald Trump.
Friday morning on the D.C.-centric MSNBC gabfest, Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski used a full 10-minute segment to rail against critics and media reporters (including some from rival network CNN) who’ve questioned the show’s admitted “friendship” with the Republican frontrunner.
The MSNBC pair—who frequently boast of powerful politicians as “friends of the show”—hosted a Wednesday evening town hall with Trump as a (failed) ratings play against CNN’s presidential town hall featuring three of the business magnate’s rivals. Many media critics suggested Trump controlled the event, steamrolling over his friendly hosts with talking points and smarm.
Scarborough deflected criticism Friday of his snugness with Trump by suggesting critics are just jealous that he has long predicted the reality TV star would make a formidable candidate. “The fact of the matter is, they’re just angry because they have been wrong for nine months and we’ve been right,” he declared.
“It’s not just scorn we’re getting from some of our competitors,” Brzezinski added, directly referring to CNN. “We’re getting a strange microscope as if we are incapable of asking Donald Trump tough questions. In the town hall you would see that we asked him every question, we pushed back.”
An exasperated Mika continued: “I don’t agree with probably four out of six major things that he said—I thought they were horrible and I have said that and I will say it again—and yet you have our competition holding a similar town hall and asking him if he likes pizza. Are you kidding me? And what music you listen to. I don’t remember doing that.”
“This is Trump derangement syndrome,” Brzezinski declared. “It’s not us!”
Later in the segment, Scarborough bemoaned: “We’ve asked the tough questions about Muslims, we’ve asked the tough questions about Mexicans, we’ve asked the tough questions about John McCain, but [I] get a sense from people that if you don’t stand on top of him with your knees on his chest and stab him in the side of the neck until he bleeds out it’s never going to be enough.”
Whoa. Thou doth protest too much?
