Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, are concerned about President Donald Trump‘s obsession with them, and his general fixation on women. But after witnessing Trump bash them yesterday in a series of scathing tweets that went after Brzezinski’s appearance, one thing they know for certain–Trump cannot continue watching their TV show (despite his insistence that he doesn’t).
In an opinion piece for the Washington Post responding to Trump’s accusations, Brzezinski and Scarborough pushed back against the president’s allegations that the duo attempted to see him multiple times around New Year’s Eve, and that Brzezinski was “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
“The president’s unhealthy obsession with ‘Morning Joe’ does not serve the best interests of either his mental state or the country he runs. Despite his constant claims that he no longer watches the show, the president’s closest advisers tell us otherwise. That is unfortunate,” the couple and co-hosts wrote of Trump’s constant berating of their show. “We believe it would be better for America and the rest of the world if he would keep his 60-inch-plus flat-screen TV tuned to ‘Fox & Friends.'”
The duo also used today’s Morning Joe to fire back at the president.
“It is unbelievably alarming that this President is so easily played — he’s so easily played — by a cable news host,” Brzezinski said. “What does that say to our allies?”
In their piece for the Post, Brzezinski and Scarborough went on to claim that they did not attempt to see Trump at Mar-a-Lago “three nights in a row,” as he claimed, and instead visited him at his insistence. While Brzezinski declined to have dinner with him and Scarborough, she joined the men and Melania Trump the next day for a short chat the following day.
They also refuted Trump’s claim that Brzezinski had a face-lift, admitting that though she’s had skin under her chin tucked, her face was “perfectly intact.” However, the couple noted how Trump’s accusation followed a long-standing pattern of the president’s obsession with women’s bodies and thanked Republican lawmakers who called out Trump’s behavior.
However, Brzezinski and Scarborough also aimed at the women closest to Trump, specifically his daughter and special adviser Ivanka, without mentioning her by name.
“We were heartened to hear a number of Republican lawmakers call out Mr. Trump for his offensive words and can only hope that the women who are closest to him will follow their examples,” the co-hosts wrote. “It would be the height of hypocrisy to claim the mantle of women’s empowerment while allowing a family member to continue such abusive conduct.”
Read Brzezinski and Scarborough’s full Washington Post response here.
Update 8:54am CT: After Friday morning’s episode of Morning Joe, President Trump called the show “fake news” on Twitter.
Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017
In their Washington Post response, Brzezinski and Scarborough alleged that “top White House staff” had previously warned them that the National Enquirer was planning to run a negative article on them, but could have the piece dropped if they begged Trump to stop its printing. While the co-hosts insisted they ignored the information, Trump denied this in his tweet, writing that Scarborough contacted him to stop the piece from running.