LARRY ELDER: Joe And Mika Kiss The Ring — From Fascist To Let’s Have Lunch

Of the television commentators who routinely disparaged, attacked, demeaned and mocked former President Donald Trump and his supporters, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” belong to the “A” team.

Yet, after Trump’s extraordinary victory two weeks ago, including a sweep of all seven swing states and becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote in 20 years, Scarborough and Brzezinski visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago, spending a reported 90 minutes with the president-elect.

As for why they made the trek, Brzezinski said: “For those asking why we would go speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back: ‘Why wouldn’t we?’ Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump but also talking with him.”

Neither Brzezinski nor Scarborough mentioned the most likely reason: ratings. Since Trump’s victory that several MSNBC hosts predicted would not happen, the channel’s primetime viewership is down a whopping 53%. By contrast, Fox’s ratings are up 38%.

The MSNBC pundits for the most part not only failed to prepare their viewers for Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat but host Rachel Maddow, for example, all but predicted a humiliating loss for Trump. Two days before the election, Maddow devoted several minutes to the “gold standard” of polls, an Iowa poll showing Trump down 3 points in the Hawkeye State, where no Democratic presidential candidate has won since 2012. Gosh, Trump is down even in Iowa!