“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin suggested Monday that MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are not true journalists after their recent visit with President-elect Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago.
Trump granted Scarborough and Brzezinski’s request to privately meet with him at Mar-a-Lago Friday to express concerns about the upcoming administration and policy issues, the “Morning Joe” co-hosts announced Monday. Hostin said that their reportedly “cordial” meeting suggests that the co-hosts are willing to “kiss his ring” rather than be journalists.
“Look, the bottomline is that America needs a free press that is willing to speak truth to power right now, more than ever,” Hostin said. “I think that we have to be very clear eyed when we think about the president-elect and cover the president-elect, and I don’t think you need to sit down for 90 minutes at Mar-a-Lago and kiss his ring to be able to speak truth and be able to cover a story. So maybe they’re not journalists in the true sense, maybe they’re saying they’re opinion journalists.”
Brzezinski said that the president-elect appeared “interested” in their conversation and in wanting to find “common ground” with Democrats. The MSNBC hosts said they expressed their desire to “restart communications” with Trump to address their “deep concerns” about his past actions and policy proposals.
“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?” Brzezinski said. “Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country, we have been as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump’s actions and words in the course of public debate, but for nearly 80 million Americans, election denialism, public trials, January 6 were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back the White House with their vote.”
Trump described the meeting with Scarborough and Brzezinski as “extremely cordial” and expressed his appreciation for their willingness to have “open communication,” according to Fox News.
During the segment, Hostin further suggested that Trump desires “state-sponsored media” and for Fox News to be the sole outlet that covers him.
“We have to remember that Trump is the guy who ushered in the era of fake news,” Hostin said. “He is the guy who ushered alternative facts. He is the guy who attacked three black female journalists. He’s the guy who revoked [CNN host] Jim Acosta’s press credentials for asking him a question. And so, I think that this president-elect, I hate to say it, would like nothing more than to have only Fox News cover him, would like nothing more than a state-sponsored media, and I don’t think he can be trusted in the way that other presidents can be trusted.”
Hostin pointed to Trump’s hostile July 31 interview with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) after ABC News reporter Rachel Scott opened her questioning by accusing him of racism. She further brought up then-CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s press credentials being revoked in November 2018 after he engaged in a heated spat with then-President Trump and blocked a White House intern’s arm as he refused to hand the microphone back to her.
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