MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, which once fawned over a preening Donald Trump early in his campaign, denounced him Monday as “fake, failed and reckless,” and blamed the president for bringing the nation to a “crisis.”
What had co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski so hot and bothered? Trump’s baseless claim that President Barack Obama had his phones at Trump Tower wiretapped during the presidential election.
“I think we reached a new low,” Scarborough said.
Added Brzezinski: “I had hope and an open mind. And I have lost hope completely and my mind is closed. This presidency is fake and failed.” She added, choking up: “This is really bad. Just for the record, we are all really nervous.”
Scarborough said the accusations have “shaken this government and the confidence of its people to the core. It is hard to overstate how reckless” the president’s tweets were.
“It is one thing when a reality TV star accuses a president of a sleazy conspiratorial theory. But when a president of the United States accuses another president, the context changes and it becomes dangerous,” he added. “We are in crisis.”
Trump was “totally unprepared for the job,” Scarborough said he now realizes. “I think he just doesn’t care. All he wants to do is blow something up, as big as an explosion as possible to distract from other things. Everything is the short game. It proves he is a day trader ... he doesn’t care who he hurts.”
“Morning Joe” was one of Trump’s chatty “go-to” programs for a welcoming reception during the early campaign days, but relations soon frayed. As “Morning Joe” became more critical, Trump released Twitter tirades against the co-hosts. Monday’s program was instantly attacked by conservatives and conservative news sites, which particularly mocked Brzezinski’s emotions. Some claimed the pointed attack may have been prompted by ratings concerns.