‘Morning Joe’ Hosts Hung Out With Donald Trump While NH Primary Results Came In

It has been argued on these pages and elsewhere that MSNBC’s Morning Joe, ever since real estate mogul Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the White House, has gone out of its way to be overly complimentary with its coverage of the man. Beyond allowing him to call in whenever he wants to ramble on, the program has positively spun his campaign and provided The Donald with tons of free publicity. It has, in effect, served as a Super PAC for the celebrity billionaire.

The cozy relationship between Trump and the two hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, became even more apparent on Wednesday morning. Following up his GOP primary win in New Hampshire, Trump gave his gazillionth interview to the pair. At the end of the conversation, after basking in the awesomeness of his amazing and very great victory, the celebrity billionaire thanked the two for being supporters of his.

“You guys have been supporters,” Trump exclaimed. “And I really appreciate it. And not necessarily supporters, but at least believers. You said there’s some potential there.”

Right away, Joe and Mika tried to spin this revelation, obviously seeing how bad it looked for them to be seen as outright fans of someone they’re supposed to be objectively covering. Scarborough tried to make it appear that it was the two’s prescient insight into Trump’s staying power and political brilliance that he was complimenting.

“When you say supporter, you’re obviously talking about how actually, uh, there were a handful of people who for six months have been saying what happened last night could happen and the rest of the media world has been mocking and ridiculing exactly what he’s done.”

Mika, on the other hand, wanted everyone to know that she doesn’t necessarily support the former reality TV star’s policies or stances, and instead, it was all about believing that he could push through and win a primary.

“It’s not like Donald and I have the same worldview. But we knew that he could do this from the get-go, so I think the sense is that we believed that his talents actually could follow through and translate into something while everyone else underestimated him.”

But one thing that was kind of skimmed over in their interview was Trump telling the two how great it was seeing them the previous evening. CNN’s Dylan Byers highlighted after the broadcast that, per two different sources of his, both Joe and Mika hung out in Trump’s hotel room on Tuesday night while the primary results started pouring in.

Hello! @JoeNBC & @morningmika hung out in Trump’s hotel room last night during primary returns, 2 sources tell me > https://t.co/Yr1oqeeTHh

— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) February 10, 2016

Scarborough immediately shot back on Twitter, accusing Byers of just being jealous of Morning Joe’s success and claiming his sources were wrong because they were CNN reporters.

Your sources are wrong, and your sources are CNN reporters. You spread a different lie about us every day. https://t.co/gBcBZ51kDw

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) February 10, 2016

Did CNN hire you just to lie about Morning Joe? The obsession is unhealthy. I love CNN media “reporters” https://t.co/gBcBZ51kDw

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) February 10, 2016

Byers followed up by asking Joe if he would deny that he spent time with Trump on Tuesday night in his hotel room, or if he was just going to resort to ad hominem attacks.

Then go on rec and say I’m wrong. This game of not responding/staying off-rec then issuing ad hominems doesn’t work https://t.co/oCXLuNoduy

— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) February 10, 2016

What’s funny with Joe’s attack on Byers is just how Trumpian it truly was. He went after CNN’s morning shows for getting beat in the ratings and said Byers was just going after them because he is obsessed and his network is full of losers. It was straight out of the Trump handbook.

For those who pay attention to Morning Joe, none of this is surprising. Mika and Joe have long played favorites with politicians and others in the media. They’re always looking to trade access for positive and glowing coverage. That is what they are. Nothing more than media whores who tout themselves as Washington insiders who like to pretend they are ‘journalists,’ but are just star fuckers looking for the next wagon to hitch to.

They should be embarrassed. But you first have to have shame.