A frustrated MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has said he was “very disappointed” that his flagship morning show Morning Joe was pulled from the air following the attempted murder of Donald Trumpand threatened to walk away if it happened again.
The decision to cancel the show on Monday sparked outrage, with some suggesting that NBC was admitting it didn’t trust the anchors to cover the horrific shooting.
Scarborough and co-host and wife Mika Brzezinski were back on the air Tuesday morning, venting their frustration with network executives who they said surprised them.
It came just hours after Trump was given a rock-star welcome when he walked into the Republican National Convention with a bandage over his right ear, where Thomas Matthew Crooks’ bullet had ripped through his skin.
“Before we start this hour, Willie (Geist, co-host), I wanted to just talk briefly to our friends and viewers who watch us every day and tell us what happened yesterday,” Scarbrough said.
‘We were told in no uncertain terms on Sunday night that there would be one news feed for all NBC news channels yesterday and that today’s program would be Lester Holt.
“Other people, who you worked with on Sunday, and that would become one news feed for all of the NBC news channels, which we as a network would keep in breaking news mode throughout the day.
“That did not happen,” Scarborough added, telling viewers how MSNBC returned to normal programming, including the first day of the Republican National Convention.
“We don’t know why that was. It didn’t happen.”
‘Our team didn’t get a good answer as to why that didn’t happen, but it didn’t happen. We were also told it would happen all day,
‘And I think that after there was so much criticism yesterday morning, they changed their plans.
‘And so those plans changed too. So it didn’t.
And you know, we talked about it, off-air.
“We’ll talk about it on the radio, because we talk about everything on the radio. We were very surprised. We were very disappointed. And if we had known that there wasn’t going to be one news feed, from NBC News across all the NBC News channels. Willie, we would have been there yesterday morning, of course.”
Scarborough then said that the next time it happens, they will be in charge of breaking news themselves, or else the network can hire “someone else.”