The co-hosts of “Morning Joe” brushed off criticism of their meeting with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday, pointing out the “disconnect” between social media and reality.
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough reacted to social media criticism on Tuesday of his meeting with President-elect Donald Trump and said there was a “massive disconnect” between social media and real life.
“Yesterday, I saw for the first time what a massive disconnect there was between social media and the real world because we were flooded with phone calls from people all day, literally around the world, all very positive, very supportive, ‘I understand what you did,’ etc,” Scarborough said.
Scarborough, along with his wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski, revealed on Monday that they met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.
“But once in a while I would get a text or call from someone going, ‘Oh, man, I hope you’re doing okay,'” Scarborough added on Tuesday, referring to criticism the pair received on social media.
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“All of us will do the best we can do and we’re all working towards a better America,” Scarborough said.
Brzezinksi added, “Take it day by day, people.”
Brzezinksi explained on Monday that the hosts wanted to re-open communications with the president-elect, despite being some of his biggest critics in the media.
“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,” she said.
“Don’t be mistaken,” Scarborough added. “We’re not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump. We’re 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.”
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Co-hosts of “The View,” Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin, were critical of the meeting on Monday, as Hostin suggested the pair were not true journalists.
“I think there’s a lot of people who are probably looking at what Joe and Mika did and find it opportunistic. There are people who change their stripes, or maybe their spots, I should say, today, depending on who is in power and what benefits them. I don’t know that that’s what they are doing, and to me, it’s a to-be-determined situation, because right now, it’s the transition,” Navarro said.
“We don’t know what he’s going to do as president. We don’t know what they’re going to do if he commits abuses of power as president. So, you know, everybody has to live with their decision. Everybody has to look at themselves in the mirror. I’m good,” she added.
Hostin said it wasn’t necessary in her view to go and “kiss the ring” to be able to properly cover Trump.
“I don’t think you need to sit down for 90 minutes at Mar-a-Lago and kiss his ring to be able to speak truth and to be able to cover a story,” she said. “So maybe they’re not journalists in the true sense. Maybe they’re saying that they’re opinion journalists, but we have to remember that Trump is the guy who ushered in the era of fake news.”
