5 Times The Hosts Of Morning Joe Found Themselves In Hot Water

Fans of the MSNBC show "Morning Joe" were shocked by the news of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's pilgrimage to meet with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Largo two weeks after he won the 2024 presidential election. The controversial visit landed the hosts in hot water with their steadfastly anti-Trump viewers, who  made their feelings clear by tuning out in droves and jumping ship. According to Variety, Nielsen figures showed a mid-week audience decline of 15%, with a 41% drop in the coveted 25-54 demo. And Brzezinski's attempt at damage control did little to end the exodus. "It's my job to interview and talk to people I disagree with, feel threatened by or who have hurt my feelings in some way," she explained in a "The Daily Beast Podcast" appearance on November 18.

With Comcast's plans to offload MSNBC and other cable assets, Scarborough and Brzezinski's ratings plummet couldn't have occurred at a worse time. Elon Musk revealed interest in the idea of purchasing the network; given Musk and Trump's boys' nights out, combined with the "Game of Thrones"-worthy employee blood bath that occurred when Musk officially took ownership of X (formerly Twitter), the future doesn't look bright for Scarborough and Brzezinski.

Meanwhile, the "Morning Joe" and Trump controversy isn't the first — but given the plunging ratings and Musk factor, it could be the last — time its hosts have landed in hot water. From explosive F-bomb drops to a Florida Christmas foray to an attempted affair cover-up, we're checking out some of Scarborough and Brzezinski's contretemps and controversies.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's November 2024 visit to Mar-a-Lago wasn't their first ill-feted Florida foray. They previously rendezvoused with Donald Trump in December 2016. And it's safe to say it didn't go down well then, either, with both sides telling a very different version of events.

Scarborough said he attended a brief half-hour dinner with Trump on December 30. However, the White House begged to differ. An administration insider told NY Magazine's Intelligencer it was closer to three hours than 30 minutes. Scarborough was back the next night, this time with Brzezinski. It just so happened that there was a big New Year's Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago, so the press took it as a given that the couple joined in the festivities. But Scarborough and Brzezinski angrily shot down reports claiming they were party guests. They insisted they were there for a short time, and it wasn't to party; instead, it was to try and secure an interview with The Donald.

"Mr. Trump claims that we asked to join him at Mar-a-Lago three nights in a row. That is false. He also claimed that he refused to see us. That is laughable," Scarborough and Brzezinski wrote in a joint June 2017 Washington Post op-ed titled, "Donald Trump is not well." Meanwhile, Trump insisted in an X flurry that "low I.Q. Crazy Mika" and "Psycho Joe" begged to attend the party, but "She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski aren't backward at coming forward with their scathing political takedowns. However, they've landed in hot water more than once for drawing comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. In October 2018, Scarborough read a psychological profile of the Führer compiled by the U.S. during World War II. "This only pertains to Adolf Hilter, and it pertains to not anybody else. I just can't state that enough," he said on air (via X) before reeling off a list of traits eerily befitting Trump. "That's all we're talking about here, Mika, Adolf Hitler, that's all we're talking about here," Scarborough insisted.

Not surprisingly, few were buying what he was selling. "No shame. And Brzezinski keeps a straight face. Even psycho Richard Nixon was never compared to Hitler," a commenter on X wrote under a clip of the segment. "Ignorant journalist spouting ridiculous anti-American fake news Soros propaganda," another fumed.

Scarborough had dropped all pretenses by November 2024, drawing direct comparisons and voicing concerns via X) that Trump would be "an autocrat who decides to be a dictator on day one. Who decides to arrest all those whom he doesn't like and take news networks off the TV as he said he would do if they're not supportive of him." The MAGA movement was not happy, with calls for Scarborough to resign and for MSNBC to fire him and Brzezinski.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski found themselves in hot water after the truth of their romance origin story was revealed. They were both married when "Morning Joe" premiered in April 2007. Scarborough divorced in 2013 and Brzezinski in 2016, and once they were single and ready to mingle, reports of a romance surfaced. "Everybody at 30 Rock knows they are a couple," a source told Page Six in June 2016.

Still, they didn't officially confirm their relationship until May 2017. In an exclusive sitdown with Vanity Fair, Scarborough and Brzezinski announced they were engaged but insisted nothing romantic had developed until their marriages naturally ran their course. But, The Daily Beast revealed in May 2017 that the relationship dated back to at least three years before Brzezinski's divorce. A source claimed The New York Post was prepared to go to print with a story revealing their affair in 2013, but Brzezinski begged Fox News CEO Roger Ailes to kill it, and he complied.

"I find it hard to believe anything adulterers say, given they lie to the person to whom they promised their fidelity, and was the most important person to them in the world. Here we have two of them together," a detractor commented on a Daily Mail story of the affair. "After Mike and Joe Scarborough had their affair, divorced their partners and got married, they expect their trash talk toward Trump to be excused?" another fumed.

Joe Scarborough's furious F-bomb rants have landed the hosts of "Morning Joe" in hot water on more than one occasion. In January 2021, the day after the Capitol riots, Scarborough ramped up the heat on his anti-Trump tirades, delivering a fiery message to the Capitol police and demanding arrests. "Then Trump supporters come in, and you open the f*****g doors for them! You open the doors for them! And let them breach the People's House!" he yelled (via The Hollywood Reporter). "If Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Guiliani, and Donald Trump aren't arrested today for insurrection and taken to jail and booked ... then we are no longer a nation of laws, and we only tell people they can do this again."

Scarborough dropped the F-bombs again in June 2024, this time during an impassioned defense of Joe Biden. "Start your tape right now because I'm about to tell you the truth. And F-you if you can't handle the truth. This version of Biden, analytically and mentally, is the best Biden ever," he insisted on-air.

The news host's potty mouth didn't go down well with many viewers. "He told us to f*** off. Well, he should be fired. He shouldn't be on tv no more," one commenter insisted on YouTube. "Any tv anchor that says F you, needs to be fired," another charged. "He needs to be fired! Make him work a week on construction and give him a pay check minus all the giveways his friend has swindled we taxpayers out of," a third fumed.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski sang from a different Biden hymn sheet in July 2024. And the dramatic 180 landed the "Morning Joe" hosts in hot water with fans and haters alike. "The sobering message [Biden] got yesterday from congressional leaders and his biggest fundraiser was simple. You're losing, and you're going to run out of money. Because the donors have left. So I don't know what those two or three in his inner circle are going to say to that, but the fact is they don't know more than Nancy Pelosi," Scarborough said on "Morning Joe," echoing Pelosi's reported call for Biden to step down.

Brzezinski concurred. She admitted that even though she had every faith in Biden's cognitive abilities, she respected Pelosi's political insight. "Morning Joe" viewers were less than impressed by the change in rhetoric and Biden back peddling.

"It is despicable that our own is separating the party and the support. What is wrong with them? We cannot [afford] this at this late date," one despaired. "The Democrats need to stand up for their President Joe Biden instead of blaming him!!" another insisted. "My family and I will all vote for Joe Biden and I will make another contribution to his campaign. What is wrong with all these democrats and donors that are abandoning him and at the same time not providing solutions. They might as well just cast their ballot for Trump because that's what they are doing!" a third fumed.