'Morning Joe' Scarborough, Brzezinski say they traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," said Monday they had traveled to the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago estate late last week to talk to Donald Trump about unifying the country and toning down political rhetoric.

Brzezinski told the program's audience it was the first time the two hosts, who are married, had met with Trump face-to-face in seven years.

"We didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues, and we told him so," Scarborough said, reading from a script in the teleprompter.

"What we did agree on was to restart communications," Brzezinski added, noting the couple had not spoken to Trump since early in 2020, outside of a personal call Scarborough placed to Trump the morning after an attempt on his life at a rally over the summer.

"In this meeting, he was upbeat, cheerful and he seemed interested in finding common ground on some of the most divisive issues," Brzezinski said.

"For those asking why we would go speak with the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us," she continued. "I guess I would ask back: 'Why wouldn't we?'"

Scarborough said a close ally of the former president suggested to him after their meeting that because Trump is not seeking another term after 2024, "now could be the time to get to work."

Top Democrats, who often appear on Scarborough's show, have also told him, he said, that they "are willing to work with the former president, if he's willing to work with us."

Scarborough and Brzezinski for years have been among Trump's most vocal critics on cable news. They host a program Trump has clearly watched, and that counts President Biden as a viewer.

The network has experienced a double-digit percentage drop in viewership since Election Day, the New York Times reported last week, citing Nielsen Media Research data.

"Don't be mistaken, we're not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump," Scarborough told his audience Monday. "We're here to report on him and to hopefully provide you insights and better equip all of us to understand these deeply unsettling times."