MSNBC “Morning Joe” Hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski Meet With Trump in Bid for “New Approach” to Coverage

Seven years after they last spoke to him, MSNBC Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski traveled to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend to meet with President-Elect Donald Trump.

The duo, who used to be friends with Trump, turned into fierce critics during his first term in office, and he returned the favor, occasionally ripping into them in tweets. At the top of Monday’s program, they disclosed their trip, acknowledging that his decisive win influenced their decision.

“Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him,” Brzezinski said. “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? Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country.”

The pair said that Trump was upbeat during their meeting, and noted that the only communication they have had in recent years was a phone call Scarborough made the day after the assassination attempt over the summer.

As for what they discussed: “We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets,” Scarborough said. “We talked about that a good bit. It will come as no surprise to anybody who watches this show, has watched it over the past year or over the past decade, that we didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so.”

“What we did agree on was to restart communications,” Brzezinski added. “My father [former Jimmy Carter national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski] often spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed. That is a task shared by reporters and commentators alike.”

“I will tell you a lot of Democratic leaders we have talked to this past week since the election have told Mika and me, it’s time for a new approach,” Scarborough added.