Mika Brzezinski: TV Networks Should Not Air Trump’s ‘Dark, Twisted Fantasy’ Tonight

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski has called on TV networks not to air President Donald Trump’s prime time address, which will be broadcast tonight. The Morning Joe host condemned the President’s rhetoric on a border wall and encouraged the main networks to boycott his speech.

Brzezinski, co-host Joe Scarborough and guests were discussing Trump’s upcoming prime time speech and the lies the administration has been spreading about terrorists crossing the southern border. Brzezinski was not impressed by the possibility of a live address filled with the same lies.

Scarborough asked why TV networks would show the address when they know Trump’s track record of lying in televized speeches, Brzezinski replied: “The answer to your question, Joe, is they shouldn’t.”

“One of the most time honored and powerful ways a president has to communicate with the American people is through a prime time Oval Office address, the majesty of the setting, the request of the valuable television time  network TV time,” Brzezinski said.

“With the ability to capture the focus of the people of the United States, maybe a signal to the country that says this is something of national importance, as your president, I need to communicate with my fellow citizens, our shared challenges and how we’re going to meet them together. We’ve seen that before,” she said.

“Done right, a night time Oval Office address can unite the country in trying times. It can inspire the better angels in ourselves,” Brzezinski said. “But all signs here indicate that is not what Donald Trump has in mind and the networks have a decision to make. Do they want to run the promise of more lies, more misleading statistics, more twisting of reality, mindless confrontation all for the sake of defending Trump’s dark, twisted fantasy on a wall and Mexican border to fight an enemy that doesn’t exist except in the most fevered swamps of American politics, do they want to do that for ratings?”

“Like they’ve done with other presidents in other times, the networks should refuse to turn over the airwaves to Donald Trump tonight for what they know objectively to be a steady stream of lies,” she said. “Maybe that will stop him from debasing yet another one of our historic, solemn and cherished presidential traditions. They shouldn’t run it, not on the main networks.”

So far, CNN, Fox News and CBS have said they will run Trump’s speech live. MSNBC has not yet issued a statement.

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.