Chris Cuomo reportedly referred to the visit to Mar-a-Lago that Morning Joe anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski made as nothing more than “opportunism” rather than a moment of “conscience.”
While Cuomo was speaking during Thursday segment, Stephen A. Smith and Bill O’Reilly were also present during the exchange
While Cuomo was discussing the latest happenings at MSNBC, including the fact that it and other cable channels are being spun off into their own company in the wake of Trump’s victory, he offered his perspective on the blowback to Scarborough and Brzezinski.
He went on to make reference to their tumultuous relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, and he even suggested that he would have been “gonzo” at CNN if he had the pair’s early relationship with Trump.
“The interesting part here is the backstory. Before they hated Trump, they did more to get Donald Trump elected, Joe and Mika, than anybody in the media.” Cuomo said.
“I am as guilty as any for giving Trump a lot of attention and his rallies during the campaign. Okay? There’s an explanation for that, too, but doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is, they loved him. They were on videotape, Bill will remember this, in a commercial break, asking Trump what they should talk about when they come back. And if I did that, okay, I would have been fired, and they liked me at the time there and it would have been dunzo for me.” he added.
During the course of an inquiry into allegations that he assisted his brother Andrew Cuomo, who was serving as governor of New York at the time, in addressing allegations of sexual harassment, Cuomo was fired from his position at CNN in 2021.
Critics have pointed out that Scarborough and Brzezinski had spent the time leading up to the election hysterically discussing the threat that Trump posed to democracy, a position seemingly at odds with their post-election willingness to meet with him.
Scarborough and Brzezinski have been trying to find a way to respond to the intense pushback that has been directed toward their trip in the days since.
In the past, Trump had a cordial relationship with both Scarborough and Brzezinski, as Cuomo pointed out, and he even made an appearance on their show before the beginning of his first term in office.
Cuomo stated that Scarborough and Brzezinski were both engaging in “opportunistic” behavior in the wake of the election.
“What it reeks of, Bill and Stephen, is opportunism, that this was never an act of conscience,” he concluded.
[READ MORE: Trump’s Potential Selection of FBI Director Presents Radically Different Potential Futures]
