MSNBC decided not to air its flagship roundtable show “Morning Joe” on Monday to avoid the possibility of embarrassing comments being made about former President Donald Trump in the wake of Saturday’s attempt on his life, CNN reported Monday.
NBCUniversal News Group’s official word was that it wanted to continue its breaking coverage following the shooting at a Trump campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left one man dead and the former president and others injured.
“Given the gravity and complexity of this unfolding story, NBC News, NBC News NOW and MSNBC have remained in rolling breaking news coverage since Saturday evening,” a company representative said in a statement to CNN.
“As we continue to cover this story into the week, the networks will continue to cross simulcast, alternating between NBC News, NBC News NOW and ‘MSNBC Reports,’ so there is one news feed covering this developing situation.”
However, CNN — citing “a person familiar with the matter” — reported that “the decision was made to avoid a scenario in which one of the show’s stable of two dozen-plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and network as a whole.”
The news outlet added, “Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, made the decision in conjunction with Rashida Jones, the president of MSNBC, and hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the person familiar with the matter told CNN.”
The New York Post noted the strongly anti-Trump views of the show’s hosts.
For example, following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month, Brzezinski did a 15-minute monologue defending him, saying the choice between Biden and Trump is “one terribly bad night versus a decade of destruction to our core beliefs, our democratic values and yes, our Constitution.”
“The choice is one terribly bad night versus a decade of destruction to our core beliefs, our democratic values, and yes, our Constitution… For me, Joe Biden is still the man for this moment.”
— @morningmika reacts to calls for Biden to bow out https://t.co/qe7xDWctlP pic.twitter.com/h42ABa9IaQ
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) July 1, 2024
Do you stand with Trump?
Former Fox News producer Kyle Becker published a compilation video on X showing the multiple times Scarborough called Trump a fascist, a racist or a would-be dictator.
“If they vote for Donald Trump in 2024 they’re knowingly voting for a fascist. They’re voting for a racist,” Scarborough said at an event with the Rev. Al Sharpton in April.
On his “Morning Joe” program, Scarborough asserted that he was not comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler but then mentioned the Nazi dictator three times in one sentence in relation to the former president.
“I’m not calling Donald Trump a dictator. But it is what autocrats and dictators have done a long time. It’s what Hitler and all of Hitler’s people, and I’m not comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler,” the MSNBC host said.
*THIS* is why Morning Joe was taken off the air today in the wake of Trump’s assassionat*on attempt pic.twitter.com/e5nV6POEEx
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) July 15, 2024
Late last year, “Morning Joe” panelist Donny Deutsch advised the Biden campaign and the Democratic Party, “Don’t say democracy is hanging on a thread, say we will be a fascist state. Start putting commercials together with Mussolini in it, with Hitler in it.”
