Joe Scarborough Slams MSNBC On Air For Dropping ‘Morning Joe’ After Attempted Assassination, Threatens To Leave Network

MSNBC’s flagship morning show, Morning Joe, hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, was unexpectedly pulled from the air on Monday in favor of news coverage of the alleged assassination attempt on the former president. 

Scarborough, visibly frustrated, expressed his displeasure with the network’s decision by stating on-air that he and his co-host were “surprised” and “disappointed” by the move and threatened to leave the program if it were to happen again.

He said live on air Tuesday morning, “Next time we are told there will be a news feed replacing us, we will be in our chairs… And the news feed will be us, or they can get somebody else to host the show.”

NBC network executives decided to replace Morning Joe with continuous news coverage. They reportedly thought that left-leaning guests might make inappropriate comments in discussions related to the Trump incident. 

However, Scarborough noted that The Today Show continued to air on NBC and MSNBC hosts Andrea Mitchell and Chris Jansing appeared for their regularly scheduled shows in the afternoon, leading him to question the network’s reasoning.

A spokesperson for NBCUniversal News Group said in a statement to CNN, “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… 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.”

Scarborough has been a frequent target of criticism from the former president and his supporters, who have long accused the left-leaning network of lacking credibility. In 2020, the former president even suggested that Scarborough had committed murder, and Scarborough, in turn, asked him to stop watching the show “for the sake of America.” This latest incident has further strained the relationship between the host and the network.

Brzezinski, co-host of Morning Joe, characterized the program as “the place where you can go to have the hard conversations in a civil way” and expressed her belief that the show’s viewers would have appreciated the team’s presence on a day when such critical news was unfolding.