The MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has criticised his own network for taking his Morning Joe show off air on Monday in the wake of the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
The left-leaning talkshow was reportedly pulled because NBC bosses feared an anti-Trump guest might make an “inappropriate” comment about the prospective Republican presidential nominee, exposing the program and the entire network to a political backlash.
A clearly aggrieved Scarborough, who hosts the show along with his wife, Mika Brzezinski, told viewers he had originally been told that it was being held off air because there would be a live breaking news feed broadcast across the whole network during its normal airtime and throughout the day, which turned out not to be the case.
He pulled no punches in voicing his unhappiness when it resumed broadcasting on Tuesday morning, even hinting that the pair would resign if there was a repetition.
“I just wanted to briefly talk to our friends and viewers that watch us every day and talk about what happened yesterday,” an earnest-faced Scarborough, looking straight at the camera, said as the programme started.
“We were told, in no uncertain terms on Sunday evening that there was going to be one news feed across all NBC news channels yesterday, and today’s show would be Lester Holt.
“That did not happen. We don’t know why that didn’t happen. Our team was not given a good answer as to why that didn’t happen.
“And I guess after there was such a strong blowback about it yesterday morning … they changed their plans. And so those plans changed as well. We’ve talked about it off the air. We’ll talk about it on the air because we talk about everything on the air. We were very surprised. We were very disappointed.”
Following up, Brzezinski said the show was designed for “hard conversations” of the type called for in the wake of the attempt on Trump’s life.
“I think the reason why this show began and continues 17 years later is [that it is ]the place where you can go to have the hard conversations in a civil way,” she said. “Now more than ever is a time we would like to be on and I think our viewers agree with that.”
It fell to Scarborough to close the matter, saying: “Next time we’re told there’s going to be a newsfeed replacing us, we will be in our chairs,” he said. “The news feed will be us or they can get somebody else sitting here.”
Morning Joe has become something of an early morning go-to show for liberals and is reportedly one of Joe Biden’s favourite programs. The US president gave an unscheduled live interview to Scarborough last week after phoning him up on air and explaining why he was refusing to bow to demands that he stand aside as the Democrats’ candidate following last month’s disastrous debate against Trump.
In contrast, the show was a frequent target of Trump’s ire when he was in the White House, when he called Scarborough “crazy’ and Brzezinski “dumb as a rock”.
