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The hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe program met with Donald Trump, leaving social media users to roast the pair
mercilessly.
With Donald Trump winning the presidential election, some media figures have begun to waver on not associating with him. According to reports, they now include Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe program.
The couple met with President-Elect Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida over this past weekend to “restart communications”. Scarborough and Brzezinski disclosed their meeting on the Monday morning (November 18) episode, citing the election as a factor.
“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 stated. “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 duo, who were once friendly with Trump, famously and consistently criticized him during his first presidential administration, with Trump firing back in posts on X, formerly Twitter. “We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets,” Scarborough said of the meet. “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.”
The two said that Trump was upbeat during their meeting and that they agreed to “restart communications,” per Brzezinski, who cited her father, former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, as an example of communicating with figures and countries which one disagrees with. “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.
The news was met with scorn and derision for the MSNBC hosts from users on X, formerly Twitter. One called them “Morning Joke”. One user, Bud McLaughlin, summed up the frustration in a post: Your job isn’t to “work with” the administration, no matter who is in power. Journalists are the Fourth Estate for a reason. We are the check, not the balance.”
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
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Lawrence O’Donnell opened the Thursday night broadcast of his MSNBC show, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell with a fiery takedown of his network and other outlets. O’Donnell blasted the media for their handling of Donald Trump and failing to fact-check the presidential candidate’s statements with immediacy
O’Donnell aimed his opening monologue on Donald Trump’s recent news conference from his Mar-A-Lago residence which aired in full on several networks and dominated the news cycle in ways that the Trump campaign has scrambled to do in the passing weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris has hit the campaign trail.
In what many described as a rambling and disjointed affair, Trump riffed and aimed attacks at Vice President Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, while rattling off several debunked claims and bizarre statements. At one point, the former president stated that a speech delivered in front of the White House on January 6, 2021, was larger than Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963, which was categorically false.
About the news conference, O’Donnell said, “It would be hard to find a sentence in what Donald Trump said today that did not include at least one lie. Some of the networks tried to play catchup with fact-checking after Donald Trump finished speaking, but that, of course, is way too late and utterly useless. No network even attempted to fact-check every lie Donald Trump told.”
It didn’t end there as O’Donnell added,” “Many of the falsehoods Donald Trump spread today in his responses came from that vast well of stupidity that takes up most of his brain. The stupidest person who has ever won a nomination for president stood there in front of those reporters and said his opponent isn’t smart enough to do what he was failing at right in front of those reporters.”
O’Donnell shared on his personal X account that he went off the intended script, speaking from the heart about the matter as he’s done repeatedly in his time in his post. You can see his reply on X and the video below.
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Photo: Getty
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Rev. Al Sharpton is known for his direct line of questioning and no-nonsense approach as the host of his PoliticsNation program. Recently, Rev. Al Sharpton welcomed Rep. Byron Donalds to the program to challenge the Republican Party congressman about his recent quip regarding Jim Crow and Black families but was frustrated in the process.
Rep. Bryon Donalds, who represents Florida’s 19th District, was a guest on PoliticsNation which came after the congressman joined MSNBC host Joy Reid on her program where he defended the explosive claims that Black marriage rates were better under the time of Jim Crow, ignoring the oppressive and racist policy altogether.
More alarming was Rep. Donalds made this statement during a Black voter outreach event in Philadelphia in support of Republican Party presidential frontrunner, Donald Trump. What Reid attempted to do when she spoke with Donalds was allow him to explain the correlation between Jim Crow and stronger Black families but it appeared that the congressman couldn’t effectively connect the two.
Donalds again joined MSNBC over the weekend to speak with Rev. Al Sharpton and much like his appearance on The Reid Out, Donalds bobbed and weaved but would not explain why he thought things were better for the Black family unit under Jim Crow despite the fact many of these Black families did not enjoy rights that white families freely enjoyed.
At one point, Sharpton asked Donalds how he could live with himself after making such claims and Donalds became exasperated as he tried to dance out of the question by trying to suggest that all he meant was the Black marriage rate was higher but not that Jim Crow was better for them.
Both appearances by Rep. Byron Donalds on MSNBC can be viewed below.
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MSNBC host Joy Reid had to apologize after being caught on the air cursing during a segment on her nightly show.
On Monday (Jan. 29), MSNBC host and analyst Joy Reid introduced a segment on that evening’s episode of her daily show, The ReidOut. It dealt with the Republicans in Congress and their handling of the legislation concerning the southern U.S. border being addressed by President Joe Biden while he was in South Carolina. “If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly… And Congress needs to get it done,” the president said in the clip.
At that moment, viewers heard Reid laugh off-camera saying, “Starting another f—ing war.” It wasn’t clear what or who she was referring to, but her microphone was instantly cut. It came back on again. “—Still trying to kill the deal,” she said, referring to former President Donald Trump who had told a crowd at a rally of his in Las Vegas that he would take responsibility if the bill fell through. “He bragged about blocking progress and said, ‘Please, please, blame him if it fails.’”
“As the leader of our party there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America. It’s not going to happen,” Trump said at that rally that took place Saturday (Jan. 26). “I notice a lot of the Senators are trying to say — respectfully they are blaming it on me, I say that’s OK please blame it on me, please, because they were getting ready to pass a very bad bill.”
At the end of the program’s broadcast, Joy Reid offered her apology to the audience. “I was chatting during a clip that was playing,” she said. “We try to keep this show very PG-13 so I just want to apologize to anyone who was listening to my behind-the-scenes chatter. I deeply, deeply apologize for that.”
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MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend blasted a Republican politician on-air for false claims about her and President Joe Biden.
In another example of what not to do with Black women on top of their game, MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend embarrassed a Republican member of the House of Representatives who appeared on her show over the weekend. Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee found himself in a corner unable to answer the host’s questions on why he supported the House’s inquiry to impeach President Joe Biden.
“You all are saying that you’re going to follow the facts in the inquiry, but there has been no evidence that has been produced that the president committed a high crime or misdemeanor while he was president. And so if you don’t find any evidence, at what point will the inquiry be considered concluded?” Sanders-Townsend asked.
Burchett then rattled off false claims about payments linked to the president’s son, Hunter Biden, which Republicans claim is proof that the president took advantage of his office. “I haven’t heard a high crime or misdemeanor yet,” the host replied. “Are you gonna let me answer the question, ma’am? I know you’re a Democrat operative and work for a Democrat consulting firm, but —” Burchett began.
“Alright, congressman, let’s do it then,” Symone cut in swiftly, adding that they are “out of time, but we’re gonna do it. I did use to advise a number of individuals, I’ve also advised some corporations and companies, but here I’m just here to be an advocate for the viewer,” she said. “And I will ask you one last time. What is the evidence that the committee has that Joe Biden, while he was president, committed a high crime, misdemeanor, or treason? Because that is the bar for an impeachment inquiry.”
Burchett responded, “You have to ask yourself, ma’am, why a vice president or a president would get $40,000 through a Chinese communist corporation…” It was at that point that Sanders-Townsend cut him off. “With that thank you very much, congressman it’s always a pleasure, you just can’t come on here and lie,” she said. The impeachment inquiry by the House Republicans has drawn many critics who feel its nothing but a distraction – Burchett is an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump and voted to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his position earlier this year.
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Source: Patrick Randak / MSNBC
In a surprising announcement, MSNBC has canceled journalist Mehdi Hasan’s show as part of a new weekend lineup change.
Fans of veteran journalist Mehdi Hasan got some bad news as it was reported that MSNBC has ended his show as part of a broader lineup change for its weekend programming. His one-hour show which aired on Sundays will be taken over by fellow journalist Ayman Mohyeldin, whose own show will extend from one hour to two. Hasan will stay on with MSNBC as an analyst and a fill-in host when the occasion arises. Other changes include Jonathan Capehart’s time slot on the weekends being moved to 6 P.M., and analyst and lawyer Katie Phang’s show being moved to noon on Saturdays.
MSNBC President Rashida Jones announced the changes in an internal memo sent out on Thursday (November 30), saying the moves “will evolve our weekend programming to better position ourselves as we head into the presidential election.” The news of Hasan’s show ending was met with dismay, considering that he was one of the journalists who had been asking hard questions of the Israeli government as their war against Hamas began on October 7, with an interview with senior adviser Mark Regev.
One prominent figure voicing their dismay is Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California, who called the decision “bad optics” for MSNBC. “As a strong supporter of free speech, MSNBC owes the public an explanation for this decision. Why would they choose to do this now?”, he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The major component of the shakeup is the debut of The Weekend, a new show that will be hosted by MSNBC anchors Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders-Townsend, and Michael Steele. The Weekend will air from Washington D.C. from 8 to 10 AM on Saturdays and Sundays beginning January 13. Menendez joined MSNBC in 2019 and had her program on Saturdays and Sundays before the move. Sanders-Townsend also had her own MSNBC show, SYMONE which aired on Peacock as well after joining the network in 2022 after serving as Senior Advisor and Chief Spokesperson to Vice President Kamala Harris. A former lieutenant governor of Maryland and RNC Chairman, Steele has been a frequent guest and fill-in host on MSNBC.
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Hip-Hop legends Common and Pete Rock are teaming up to incorporate the 90’s sound into today’s flows.
During a recent appearance on MSNBC’s The Beat With Ari Melber, the Grammy award-winning rapper confirmed he has a new project on the way with the legendary hitmaker and the project’s heartbeat will be centered around Hip-Hop from the 1990s.
“I [have] been listening to a lot of ’90s Hip Hop because I [have] been creating a new project,” Common said. “I’m working on a new album with Pete Rock and just, the energy of that music, whether it’s Brand Nubian, A Tribe Called Quest, or De La Soul because they just got their music on streaming, it’s been inspiring to hear. But I am creating new music right now. I’m in a great space.”
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Pete Rock also confirmed the news by sharing a screenshot of a post regarding the fact he was working with the Chi-Town wordsmith to Instagram on Wednesday (Sept. 13) and sounded off on what people can expect from the collaboration. “You ever miss that feeling of a good release in hip hop?” he asked in the caption. “Remember how exciting that felt??? We both excited as a mafugga. I always feel like I got something to prove but its just fun to me to make music,” the 53-year-old producer wrote. “Competing to make good music with all the different personalities involved today just gotten dry. We love hip hop and you will know just how much stay tuned!!!”
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The collab marks the third reunion between the dynamic duo. Common and Pete Rock first worked together over 25 years ago for “The B*tch In Yoo.” The 1996 track from the label compilation Relativity Urban Assault found Common responding to Ice Cube and Mack 10 for “Westside Slaughterhouse”—which appeared on Mack’s self-titled debut album, and marked an early Westside Connection posse cut whereby Cube jabbed Common for his lyrics in 1994 Resurrection single and video “I Used To Love H.E.R.”
Although “The B*tch In Yoo” landed on Common’s greatest hits compilation, that beef was later squashed, as Common and Cube worked together in film and music. Common would also guest appear on Pete Rock’s solo debut Soul Survivor on the verbal assault-driven track, “Verbal Murder 2,” alongside Big Pun and N.O.R.E.
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50 Cent is comfortably in his mogul role as he continues to dominate as an executive producer in the entertainment world via his portfolio of street-savvy dramas. After a well-received interview with MSNBC host Ari Melber last week, 50 Cent got into a humorous war of words with a former Kremlin official over which guest had the most views on The Beat.
The artist born Curtis Jackson didn’t take the first shot as most might expect. This time, the honor went to Andrei Vladimirovich Kozyrev, a former Kremlin official, and Russian politician. Kozyrev was a guest on The Beat last year just as the Ukraine conflict erupted and became the most-watched The Beat segment with 5.4 million views.
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As of now, 50 Cent holds second place in the viewership race at 4.4. million from a 2018 appearance on The Beat, prompting Kozyrev to show off a bit in a response to a tweet made by Melber on Feb. 17 highlighting the top four most-watched interviews.
Fif, not to be outdone, replied in his usual hilarious fashion.
In response, Kozyrev let Fif know that his son is a fan of his.
Along with the many feathers in his cap already, could 50 Cent be preparing to enter the high-stakes world of foreign affairs? Stay tuned.
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Photo: JACK GUEZ / Getty
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