It's been two days now since MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed on their "Morning Joe" program that they visited Mar-a-Lago last Friday for a meeting with President-Elect Donald Trump, news that shocked their already small fan following considering their long-running post-2016 election feud.
As RedState reported, the opportunistic co-hosts noted Monday that after expressing "concerns" last Thursday about some of Trump's cabinet picks and saying they would "appreciate the opportunity" to talk to him they "were given the opportunity to do just that."
Per Brzezinski, one thing they allegedly all agreed on was to "restart communications." Though the couple and Trump seemed okay with how the discussion went down, chronic TDS sufferers were most certainly not okay.
READ MORE-->> HOT TAKES: Meltdown City on the Left After Joe and Mika Try Playing Nice Again With Donald Trump
On CNN Tuesday night, the fallout from the Joe and Mika news was a hot topic of conversation, especially when their fanatically anti-Trump media hall monitor, Brian Stelter, proclaimed without evidence that his sources told him the real reason they met with Trump was over fears of "retribution":
STELTER: You know, Joe and Mika didn't say much about it today. But according to my sources, they believed, they credibly were concerned that they faced governmental and legal harassment with this incoming administration, essentially that they fear retribution and that's partly why they sought out this meeting.
[CNN HOST ABBY] PHILLIP: What kind of retribution are we talking about here?
STELTER: You know, I think there's a wide spectrum and to be fair to Brzezinski and Scarborough, they're not the only MSNBC hosts or the only, the word journalist is complicated, right, because they're more like personalities. But there are a number of journalists at places like the "A.P." and other big news outlets that are concerned about retaliation in the coming months.
Anything from IRS audits to lawsuits and things like that. There are media outlets balking up on lawyers, thinking about having more libel insurance, those sorts of things. Now, I don't know exactly what the specific concern Joe and Mika had was or wasn't, but they're not the only MSNBC personalities worried about retaliation. However, they are the only ones to go down to Mar-a-Lago and have a meeting.
As Stelter was trying and failing to make his claim sound credible, Jennings could be seen on a side-by-side screen looking upward and shaking his head. Then, he unloaded:
JENNINGS: I mean, isn't it possible, too, that they're just two people who think -- are so full of themselves, so full of self-aggrandizement that they would feel like that they would be personally singled-out?
STELTER: Scott, don't tell anyone but some of their colleagues feel that way.
JENNINGS: Well, I just --first of all, I can see why. Second of all, if that's what happened and if that's what they truly believe, why did they go on TV and say that we went down there to meet with the president to tell him that hey anyone who's been critical of you, you know, you should treat us like journalists and not like the enemy. They didn't go on TV and say that. They went on TV and portrayed it much differently.
So, what I hear you saying in your reporting is they had a motive that they weren't willing to disclose to their audience, which I think should get them more scorn today than they were already getting to begin with.
His priceless facial expressions said it all:
NEW: @ScottJenningsKY's reactions are priceless as Brian Stelter ‘reports’ that Joe/Mika met with Trump because they feared retribution:
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) November 20, 2024
"I mean, isn't it possible too that they're just two people who are so full of themselves, so full of self-aggrandizement that they would feel… pic.twitter.com/Ecr6QItBq3
Jennings is, of course, right on the money. I mean Mika and Joe have been self-described leaders in the so-called "resistance" movement ever since their fallout with Trump in mid-2016, spending hours upon hours laying into him and spreading every baseless conspiracy theory conceivable on their show, in their speeches, and on social media.
So if they were being true to their oft-stated beliefs that Trump is a fascist and a danger to democracy, they would have noted on Monday that they discussed with him how they believe he needs to stop treating them and others in the MSM as" the enemy" and start treating them as journalists (I know, Joe and Mika really aren't journalists but we're just running with their descriptions for purposes of discussion) as a way to reestablish a "respect" in the interest of keeping the public informed.
But they didn't. They went there to grovel in hopes of getting back into his good graces because they desperately need ratings and money and one way to achieve that is to have everyone in the cocktail circuit talking about them, whether it's good or bad talk.
Brian Stelter is entitled to his opinion on the matter but he is not entitled to his own "facts." The fact of the matter is that Mika and Joe have turned shameless grifting into an art form over the years. That their followers including Stelter are just now waking up to that harsh (for them) reality is not anyone else's problem but their own.
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