Morning Joe Criticizes Guest's Joke, He Fires Back

David Frum suggests MSNBC hosts are in 'fear' of incoming Trump White House
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 5, 2024 11:00 AM CST
Morning Joe Criticizes Guest's Joke, He Fires Back
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.   (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

The Morning Joe team is again making headlines over its handling of the incoming Trump administration. Once more, critics say Joe Scarborough and wife Mika Brzezinski are kowtowing, while the MSNBC hosts defiantly reject the idea. The latest flap stems from an appearance on Wednesday by Atlantic writer David Frum, reports the Daily Beast.

  • Frum's joke: When asked on the show about an NBC report that defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth's drinking worried former Fox News colleagues, Frum joked in part: "If you're too drunk for Fox News, you're very, very drunk indeed."
  • Mika's statement: Shortly after, with Frum gone, Brzezinski told viewers that "the comment was a little too flippant for this moment that we're in." She added: "We want to make that clear. We have differences in coverage with Fox News, and that's a good debate that we should have often, but right now I just want to say there's a lot of good people who work at Fox News who care about Pete Hegseth, and we will want to leave it at that."

  • Frum's response: Frum then wrote an Atlantic essay, headlined "The Sound of Fear on Air," in which he criticized Brzezinski's statement and described it as an apology, noting, "It is a very ominous thing if our leading forums for discussion of public affairs are already feeling the chill of intimidation and responding with efforts to appease." Frum suggested his appearance was cut short because of his comments, which he defended as a fair criticism of Fox employees' responsibility to air their concerns about Hegseth.
  • Scarborough's turn: He opened Thursday's show with a rebuttal of Frum, reports Mediaite. "What was the headline? 'The Sound of Fear.' That wasn't the sound of fear, that was the sound of civility. In saying that Mika had apologized, she didn't apologize. She simply said it was too flippant." He added: "Let me tell you something, you can talk to anybody that has worked in the front office of NBC and MSNBC over the past 22 years. I tell you, I'm not fearful. If you talk to anybody [who] served with me in Congress, they will tell you—not fearful of leadership. Now? Not fearful." Scarborough again defended their decision to visit Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago—which set off the earlier controversy—as a matter of journalistic integrity, per Mediaite.
(More Morning Joe stories.)

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