The hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, recently shocked their audience when they admitted that they had met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Trump spoke well of the meeting, but their leftist audience wasn’t exactly happy. Did Morning Joe, which has bashed Trump as a fascist dictator-wannabe for years, just meet with Hitler 2.0? Or have they been lying the whole time?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So MSNBC, morning show host, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed this morning, that they had a personal sitdown with the president-elect in Florida, to restart communications.

Scarborough and his wife who repeatedly have bashed the president-elect on the air over the World Series.

I haven't noticed that happen. Said they had a --

STU: Almost didn't. Because they didn't watch.

GLENN: Yeah. Had a face-to-face with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Friday. The first meeting in seven years. After reaching out in the wake of his election win. Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country.

We have been as clear as we know now, in expressing our deep concern about the president's acts and words, in the coarsening of the public debate, said Brzezinski, as she opened Monday's show with a stunning revelation.

But nearly 80 million Americans, election denialism, public trials, January 6, were not as important as the issues that moved them, to send Donald Trump back to Washington with their vote.

Joe and I realized, it's time to do something different. I was thinking more of like, I don't know. Morning show waiter and waitress, in the morning time.

You know, at -- there's a couple of diners.

STU: They can go back to the radio show that they put on hiatus many years ago. Because they wanted to add a third hour. They couldn't figure out how to do that.

GLENN: Yeah. We just have to figure out how to do that.

STU: Wait. So this is interesting.

Because -- it's -- it's fascinating. Because he, of course, they loved Trump back in the day.

GLENN: Loved him.

I think they were with him on 2016. Weren't they? On election night. Something like that.

Or maybe for one of the --

STU: Primaries.

I don't know what it was. They had them on all the time. They were good friends with them.

And then he became president.

He got the nomination. They started to oppose him.

He became president. They got into a fight.

I remember Trump tweeting something about her plastic surgery or something.

Like he was -- saying she had botched plastic surgery.

The good old days.

STU: So -- but like I can understand.

There's a rational human thing to do.

Which would allow for something like this.

Like a rational human being, who just went through this election.

And was telling everyone, you know, Donald Trump was a fascist. And when they saw, hey. Wait a minute.

They voted for him.

Maybe I should try to understand him.

Maybe I'm the -- maybe we're the baddies. Like it's one of those moments.

GLENN: Yeah. That's not what they're saying.

STU: That's not what they're saying. Because I think it kind of seems like what they were saying there. I just don't believe it at all from them.

They also have no incentive to do it. Their audience is going to hate this.

GLENN: Well, their audience has dropped by half in the past seven days.

STU: Of course it has. But that's also not shocking.

You know, from six to three people, is not that big -- it sounds dramatic.

GLENN: It was actually two to one.

STU: Two to one. Okay.

GLENN: Yeah. There were two people. And Mika just said, I'm not watching the monitors anymore.

I'm not going to do it.

STU: Because we know the camera people weren't watching.

GLENN: No, they haven't watched that for years.

But anyway, listen to this.

So Joe and I realized, it's time to do something different, which starts with not only talking about Donald Trump.

But also talking with him. Yeah, you've been talking about him for a while now.

The trio talked about abortion, mass deportation, and threats of political retribution.

STU: This is terrifying.

GLENN: We talked about that a good bit. It will come as no surprise to anybody who watches the show, has watched it over the past year. Or the past decade.

That we don't see eye to eye with a lot of the issues. And we told him so.

What we did agree on. Was to restart communications.

STU: What does that mean?

Because there's a famous clip of -- of Joe and Mika, basically asking Donald Trump what he wanted to be asked. During an interview.

GLENN: Yeah. I remember that.

STU: This is back in 2015.

2016.

GLENN: When they were --

STU: When they were buddies.

Basically like, so what does that mean?

Communications.

Like I --

GLENN: I have a feeling, it means that MSNBC, or, you know, Morning Joe hasn't reached out.

Or if they have, they have not gotten a response from Trump.

And so now they're like, okay. Let's talk. Let's at least talk.

STU: What would their need -- what would the need be for Donald Trump to talk to them?

I mean, for him, just pure entertainment purposes. Take the meeting.

It will be funny.

But like, why. For him what would be the purpose of them talking?

I mean, maybe Trump is just -- I can win over some MSNBC viewers. I can bend the media coverage a little bit toward my favor. But I can understand why he wouldn't want to do it. But why would he actually go ahead with it. It's not employing to change it.

GLENN: I don't know. Other than, you know, he -- he doesn't -- nobody does.

Nobody likes being a pariah. You know what I mean?

STU: Yeah. You seem to enjoy it.

GLENN: I really don't. No.

Many things -- this is what Trump said.

It was extremely cordial. And the couple praised his flawless campaign. That's what Fox news reported.

Many things were discussed. I'm quoting the president now. And I very much appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication.

In many ways, it was too bad, that it wasn't done too long ago.

They congratulated me on running a great and flawless campaign. One for the history books, which I believe it was.

But it was also a campaign where I worked long and hard, perhaps longer and harder than any other presidential candidate in history.

I believe that too.

STU: Yeah. And we should point out too. A big part of that work was fighting off fake accusations of being Hitler from those people.

So I don't know. I wouldn't have time for them.

He's a better man than I am for entertaining the nonsense.

GLENN: Well, he said, I feel an obligation to the American public and to our country itself, to be open and available with the press. If not treated fairly, however, that will end.

I think as the president, it is NBC.

It's not MSNBC.

So that's like, you know -- you know, it's Kleenex. No. It's actually the people that perforate the box at the top.

That you pull that out. Then you get the Kleenex. I'm not talking to the perforation people.

If I want to deal with Kleenex. I'm going to the people that are making the Kleenex.

So it's MSNBC. The backlash against the pair was swift against social media this morning. With many blasting the duo for their shamelessness. And for bending the knee for arranging face-to-face.

Hitler getting a lot more meeting requests than I thought.

STU: This is so -- this shows and proves how fake that was.

GLENN: I know. You don't meet with Hitler.

STU: Yeah. Joe Biden welcoming you into the White House.

All this back and forth. We'll work together.

We will make sure your transition is as good as possible. Why would you do that for Adolf?

I mean, that's just -- it doesn't make any sense. None of this stuff was actually real.

That whole time.

It's just lies to try to win an election. Byron York said, annals of shamelessness, they call Trump a fascist. And much, much more than 22 days after his Nazi-like rally. They fly to Florida for an audience.

STU: That's so bad. A lot of times I feel like -- sometimes audiences can be very -- can be tough, if you step out at all.

Right?

If you are -- if you take an odd position. This has happened to me. It's happened to you.

You take a position, the audience does not like. They can rip you.

That's good to keep you in line. Sometimes I think it's overdone.

You will disagree with people and you should disagree with people, that you listen to.

I would feel completely lied to, if I were one of their fans.

Now, I don't know they don't have a lot of them. It's hard to know for sure.

GLENN: No. Ever since Joe's mom stopped listening.

STU: She should just listen to this show, back in the day.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

STU: Sorry. If you're listening today. We love your son. I'm sure he's great.

GLENN: We love him, in the way that Jesus requires us to love him.

STU: Jesus loves the little children. All the little children of the world.

Loyal Morning Joe viewers are furious about the Trump meeting.

Jeff Jarvis.

GLENN: Oh, no. Not Jeff Jarvis.

STU: Yes. The Jeff Jarvis.

GLENN: Wow. Is he upset?

STU: I might have to click on the name Jeff Jarvis. So you know who he is.

GLENN: Of course. And he's a known cool-headed guy.

STU: Oh, really?

Enlighten me so I don't have to -- who is Jeff Jarvis?

GLENN: Jeff Jarvis.

Jeff -- did you ever see the movie from Marvel?

STU: I've seen many movies from Marvel.

GLENN: The Jarvis character was based on him. Very, very smart.

You know, just almost AI-like.

STU: Almost AI-like.

GLENN: He's that calm and collected. And informed.

STU: He says, it's a betrayal of their colleagues. Democracy. And us all.

Which, again, if you're an MSNBC viewer. Wouldn't you feel that way?

What do you mean, you're meeting with Adolf Hitler?

What are you talking about?

You just spent multiple years telling us, he didn't care about democracy. He wanted to destroy the nation.


GLENN: Can I play devil's advocate?

STU: On behalf of Joe and Mika. Or on behalf of Jeff Jarvis.

Who, by the way, is a --

GLENN: Computer AI. Yeah.

STU: I don't know what he --

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Maybe a professor.

GLENN: Oh, wow. Okay.

STU: There you go.

GLENN: I was more impressed when he was a nonexistent computer from a movie.

The -- the -- play devil's advocate.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: You -- I would meet with -- if I was a journalist, I would meet with Hitler.

I would meet with Klaus Schwab.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: I wouldn't kiss the ring.

But I would want an interview.

STU: Right. But that's not what they got. They got a private meeting. They got a dinner.

GLENN: I guess.

STU: A delicious steak dinner.

GLENN: It required me to also continue to do that. And I wouldn't get that. Unless I kissed the ring, unless I said what I really believed.

The secret here is they don't really believe that. They don't believe that.

STU: They don't believe he's Hitler.

GLENN: No.

STU: Because I think there's an argument to be made. And you kind of hit on this earlier, a little bit.

But there's an argument to be made that if you believe you can go in there, and sweet talk him.

And get him to be a little bit less adversarial toward you, that it's worth doing it.

Right? That's why -- people were always like, why do you talk to reporters when they're writing these stories about you?

Well, it's a good point. Because you never get a good story written about you if you're a conservative. But one of the reasons you do it is try to eliminate the worst parts of it, and to try to actually point them in the right direction of the truth. Most of the time, they don't take that.

But you do it, because they might have something completely false, that someone else said about you. And you can prove that it's inaccurate. And they leave it out of the piece. That happens all the time.

So maybe what they're thinking is, if we go in there and rejuvenate the friendship a little bit, remember the good old days.

GLENN: But who would watch MSNBC?.

STU: That's a great question. Is that the end of it? Because that's a great question as is.

GLENN: I know it is. But let me narrow it down even further. For those who are currently still watching it, why would you continue to watch?

STU: I know.

GLENN: Because you would be like, wait. I don't want to like Hitler. I don't want to be with Hitler lovers.

To meet with him?

STU: There's only two options here.

One is the host you love, is meeting with Hitler.

The other option is they've been lying to you, the entire time.

Why would you ever watch that show again, in either circumstance.

This is why you don't take the meeting.

This is why I'm shocked by the incentives. The incentives for Joe Scarborough here. To keep his little train going.

GLENN: It's up for sale. I think MSNBC is up for sale.


STU: They're talking about that. I think it is up for sale.

Why would you continue -- what incentive do you have really, to do this? You're failing your audience. Everyone is going to hate you and your audience, I think.

GLENN: You're just desperate to hold on.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: And that's -- that's the only reason.

You're desperate to not lose your gig.

STU: But why would that help you?

You would think it would hurt your gig. If you're kissing.

GLENN: It will. But you're trying to inject logic into this.

STU: Right. But let me ask you this. Let me give you another crazy possibility. Is it possible they actually really do believe their rhetoric this whole time.

And they think Trump will actually pull them off the air. They're trying to get on his good side to prevent that?

Because, I mean, Trump has basically said, I will come after --

GLENN: We honestly thought. If we lost, our time would be marked. Because it wasn't just going to be us. It was going to be anybody who disagrees with the regime. That will take us out.

I wouldn't have made lovey-dovey with -- I would have never done that. I wouldn't have gone. You know, I need to see Kamala.

STU: You're not a horrible human being.

So you're not understanding their situation, exactly.

Their situation is a little different. Different incentives and thought processes.

GLENN: Sara, clip that. Because that's the only time. I worked this whole conversation to get him to say, you're not a horrible human being.

STU: Yeah. I was talking to Sara.

What do you mean?