“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough criticized MSNBC on-air Tuesday after his show was unexpectedly preempted the previous day following an assassination attempt on 45th President Trump.
The MSNBC program was replaced by NBC News special reporting, leaving political and media observers surprised. Scarborough addressed the confusion during the second hour of Tuesday’s show, explaining, “We were told, in no uncertain terms, on Sunday evening, that there was going to be one news feed across all NBC News channels yesterday. That did not happen. We don’t know why that didn’t happen. Our team was not given a good answer as to why that didn’t happen, but it didn’t happen.”
According to a report by Fox News Digital, the show’s producers and hosts were informed that their program would be replaced by a unified NBC News feed but were left shocked and upset when only “Morning Joe” was sidelined.
Scarborough expressed his disappointment, stating, “We were very surprised. We were very disappointed. And if we had known that there wasn’t going to be the one news feed from NBC News across all NBC News channels, Willie [Geist], we obviously would have been in yesterday morning.”
MSNBC’s decision to replace “Morning Joe” came under scrutiny, especially after reports suggested it was due to concerns that a guest might say something inappropriate in the wake of the Trump shooting. However, an MSNBC spokesman denied this claim.
Scarborough quipped that next time they are told a news feed would replace them, they would be ready to broadcast. Co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist added that they wanted to be on-air to discuss the significant events.
“This show began, and continues 17 years later on being the place where you can go to have the hard conversations in a civil way. So it seemed like, now more than ever, is a day, a time that we would like to be on. I think our viewers agree with that,” Brzezinski said.
The show’s benching on Monday, following the assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, raised questions among the hosts and viewers. NBC’s “Today” show aired a new episode Monday morning, and most of MSNBC’s regular programming proceeded as usual, with hosts like Andrea Mitchell and Chris Jansing taking their chairs.
The incident has brought to light internal communication issues within the network and sparked a debate about the handling of such significant news events.
Hmmm…thought you had to be an adult to host a TV show. Guess not.