'Morning Joe' ratings tumble following Trump meeting at Mar-a-Lago

Conservative former Rep. Joe Scarbrough (R-Florida) and liberal Mika Brzezinski, the married hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," have been scathing critics of President-elect Donald Trump. Scarborough has often bashed Trump from the right — arguing that he has been terrible for the conservative movement — while Brzezinski has attacked him countless times from a liberal perspective.

But after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, Scarborough and Brzezinski met with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago — a move that, they said, wasn't an endorsement from a policy standpoint but was merely designed to reopen communications with him.

Nonetheless, the "Morning Joe" hosts have drawn a lot of criticism from Trump foes for the Mar-a-Lago visit. CNN reported that according to sources, the meeting was driven by fears of retribution from the president-elect and his incoming administration.

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According to the Daily Beast, the show's ratings have taken a hit.

The Daily Beast's William Vaillancourt reports, "After the co-anchors of MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' announced Monday, (November 18) that they had met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago the previous Friday as part of what they dubbed a 'new approach' for covering him, many viewers of the program turned their focus elsewhere, according to Nielsen data. The numbers, obtained by Mediaite, show that after Joe Scarborough and Mike Brzezinski broke the news shortly after 6 a.m., 38 percent of those in the 25-54 demographic had stopped watching by the next hour."

Vaillancourt adds, "Given the show’s early morning time slot, viewership typically rises from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. President Joe Biden has been known to tune in regularly."

However, a source described by Vaillancourt as someone "close to the show" defended the Mar-a-Lago visit, telling the Daily Beast that it was "f****** worth it" because it may discourage Trump from frequently expressing major animosity for the press.

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Read the Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).