Score One for the Former, and Still, Thespian

Not the main question but: if we're fools, what does that make the two moderates of The View?

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski really made us fools.. Such ass kissers.#morningjoepic.twitter.com/wJ4gvjTVOs

— Neo Jane (@Neo_Jane8) November 18, 2024

According to British tabloid The Mirror, Alyssa Farrah-Griffin said

So, I actually think it was the right thing to do and I've hard a lot of folks on the left coming after Joe and Mika saying, 'Don't normalize him.' Well, 75 million plus voters normalized Donald Trump by making him President-elect Donald Trump ... They met with him for over 90 minutes. They both raised very valid concerns. They both see themselves as opinion journalists who want to actually be able to engage the person they talk about every day, actually be able to raise issues with them when they're concerned

Not quite as idiotically, Sara Haines remarked

I absolutely think it was the right decision and I think it's good they work on MSNBC. I don't want only FOX people going to see them. That was some of the problem that I think everyone can agree, maybe even people who voted for Trump can agree, that the things they were watching on FOX are wrong. That's the only network that's had to pay billions of dollars because they got it wrong....

I don't need to know [Joe and MIka's] motivation. I just know you get nowhere in silence. Conversations had to be had ... I would absolutely sit down and always have a conversation because I'm confident enough to sit down at a table in contrast and disagree when I disagree. I'm not scared. I'm not afraid. You have the conversations or nothing happens.

Those opinions were expressed on Monday morning, soon after Scarborough and Brzezinski broke the news of their November 15 chat at Mar-a-Lago with President-elect Donald J. Trump. It's onfounding that Haines would be unconcerned about motivation, which does not appear to be something other than having a civil conversation with a disagreeable person in order to open lines of communication.  On Tuesday morning, CNN reported

 

In private conversations, Scarborough argued that having face time with a world leader is a no-brainer. Some of his MSNBC colleagues agreed, but there was more to the Mar-a-Lago meeting.

 According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Scarborough and Brzezinski were credibly concerned that they could face governmental and legal harassment from the incoming Trump administration.

Scarborough claimed that the duo did not intend to "defend or normalize" Mr. Trump. Yet, Brezinski described the the incoming President, an accomplished actor, as "cheeful" and "upbeat."  She also cotended that he appeared "interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues," whicht he shrewdly aimed to have Brzezinski deliver to the MSNBC audience. 

Other journalists face the possibility of retribution but didn't immediately cave. Jennifer Rubin has not. Neither has Will Bunch, who noted

it was more than a little shocking Monday morning when Scarborough and Brzezinski revealed their unorthodox way of dealing with a “fascist” president — that they’d gone to Mar-a-Lago Friday to meet with the president-elect, presumably on bended knee. It certainly can’t be called an act of journalism, because there were no cameras present. “Don’t be mistaken: We are not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump,” Scarborough — a firebrand conservative GOP congressman in the 1990s who now is an independent — told his presumably shocked viewers. “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.” But the MSNBC star also claimed that an “upbeat” Trump “seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues.”

Brzezinski, for her part, answered her own question of how could they meet with Trump by asking, “How could we not?” A better question and answer would have been the one way the MSNBC stars could have gone to Mar-a-Lago while retaining their integrity, and even performing a public service: by demanding that Trump only agree to speak to them on camera, unedited, with no subject restrictions, and to ask some of the tough questions that the president has avoided, like his wackadoodle cabinet picks or his plans to use the military for mass deportations.

Joe Rogan very likely would have bagged an interview with candidate shortly before the presidential election. However, he justifiably insisted that the meeting would take place in his studio in Austin, Texas.As Bunch argues, the Scarboroughs should have demanded that Trump speak to them- unedited- on camera and with no restrictions. Conducting the interview or having the chat at Mar-a-Lago also does the public a disservice compared to an exchange at a neutral site.

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Honest and professional journalists who do not want to ennnoble President Trump or facilitate his effort to accrue absolute, unquestioned power face rough sledding over the next 4+ years. Their response to the imperial presidency is crucial, and Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski appear headed in the wrong direction.

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