'Went to Mar-a-Lago': Morning Joe and Mika reveal weekend face-to-face meeting with Trump

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet in person with Donald Trump for the first time in years.

The pair had previously been friends with the former star of NBC's "The Apprentice," but their relationship soured after they repeatedly criticized Trump during his first presidency and afterward. They said they visited his private resort in Palm Beach, Florida, in an attempt to bury the hatchet.

"Over the past week, Joe and I have heard from so many people from political leaders to regular citizens deeply dismayed by several of president-elect Trump's Cabinet selections and they are scared," Brzezinski said. "Last Thursday, we expressed our own concerns on this broadcast and even said we would appreciate the opportunity to speak with the president-elect himself.

"On Friday, we were given the opportunity to do just that. Joe and I went to Mar-a-Lago to meet personally with President-elect Trump. It was the first time we have seen him in seven years."

Since the last time they met, the former president accused Scarborough of murdering a congressional staffer decades ago, a conspiracy theory he heard from his attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, and the "Morning Joe" host claims that Trump allies had threatened to arrest his producers if he was re-elected.

"We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets," Scarborough said. "We talked about that a good bit. It will come as no surprise to anybody who watches this show, has watched it over the past year or over the past decade, that we didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so."

"What we did agree on was to restart communications," Brzezinski said. "My father [former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski] often spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed. That is a task shared by reporters and commentators alike. We had not spoken to Trump since March of 2020 other than a personal call that Joe made, a call after the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania. In this meeting, President Trump was cheerful and upbeat and he seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues. And 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? Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country."

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"We have been as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump's actions and words in the coarsening of public debate for nearly 80 million Americans," Brzezinski added. "Election denialism, public trials, Jan. 6 were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote. 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."

A source close to the former president told Scarborough that Trump might approach his second term differently because he was prohibited from running again.

"Somebody close to Donald Trump told me this past weekend, this is a president who is not seeking re-election, so maybe, just maybe now could be time for both parties to get to work," Scarborough said. "I know, given the jarring headlines that we read every day, that may seem like a stretch but think about this. Of the 150 million votes cast, Donald Trump got 50 percent, Kamala Harris got about 49 percent, so I don't know. It seems to make sense for leaders of both parties to seek common ground, if it's possible at all. I will tell you a lot of Democratic leaders we have talked to this past week since the election have told Mika and me, it's time for a new approach. When I say top Democrats, I mean top Democrats. They said we are open — this is before we talked to Donald Trump — they said, listen. We are open to working with the incoming president if the incoming president is open to working with us."

Brzezinski acknowledged that seemed unlikely, give the current political climate, but she argued that both parties should at least try to co-exist peacefully.

"The question is, though, how do we get there?" she said. "Hyperbole and personal attacks will not work. My hair on fire doesn't work, we have all seen that! What also does not work is threatening political opponents with arrest, harassment and even jail. That is a failed path. Recent history has proven that impeachments and trials turn those on trial into political martyrs and only make them more popular with the American people. Just ask Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. We know this will be a consequential presidency, the question is whether it will be constructive. It will take a new approach from all sides, from both parties, and a leader who can bring them together and only time will tell if Donald Trump can be that leader. As for us, we also let him know that we will continue to speak truth to power and push back hard when called for, as we have with all presidents."

Scarborough seemed to anticipate criticism of their visit to Mar-a-Lago and insisted they would still cover him as a potential threat to democracy.

"Don't be mistaken, we are not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump," Scarborough said. "We are here to report on him and to hopefully provide you insights that are going to better equip all of us in understanding these deeply unsettling times, and I am reminded of what Marty Baron, legendary editor told his Washington Post editors back in the first term: 'We are not going to war, we are going to work.' So let's go to work now."

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