Joe and I went to Mar-A-Lago to meet personally with president elect Trump. It was the first time we have seen him in seven years. And it's going to come as no surprise to anybody who watches this show, [00:00:15] has watched it over the past year or over the past decade, that we didn't see eye to eye on a lot of issues, and we told him so. What we did agree on was to restart communications. My father often spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States [00:00:33] profoundly disagreed. That's a task shared by reporters and commentators alike. Well, the hosts over at Morning Joe are facing quite a bit of backlash after they decided to visit Donald Trump for a delightful meal over at Mar a Lago following Trump's victory [00:00:51] in the presidential election. Of course, and this is after they basically spent years calling him a dangerous, dictatorial man. Now, they said that they talked about many issues, including abortion, mass deportations, and the threats of retribution [00:01:08] against political and media opponents. And here's their explanation as to why they decided to work with Trump after years of fear mongering about his authoritarian nature. In this meeting, President Trump was cheerful. He was upbeat. He seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats [00:01:27] on some of the most divisive issues. And for those asking why we would go speak to the president elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back, why wouldn't we? Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country. [00:01:46] We have been as clear as we know how, in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump's actions and words in the coarsening of public debate. But for nearly 80 million Americans, election denialism, [00:02:02] public trials in January 6th were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the white House with their vote. Joe and I realized it's time to do something different. And that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, [00:02:20] but also talking with him. Now, president elect Donald Trump has also confirmed that this meeting did in fact take place. And in an interview with Fox News, he says many things were discussed and I very much appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication. [00:02:36] In many ways, it's too bad that it wasn't done long ago. He added that they congratulated me on running a great and flawless campaign, one for the history books, which I really believe it was, but it was also a campaign where I worked long and hard. [00:02:53] That's what she said, perhaps longer and harder than any presidential candidate in history. Now, according to Fox News, the president elect also said that he has an obligation to the American public and to our country itself, to be open and available to the press. [00:03:10] Admirable thing to say. But then he continues, if not treated fairly, however, that will end. The media is very important to the long term success of the United States of America. Fox and friends also made sure to heap praise on Trump for agreeing to meet with the Morning Joe crew, calling him magnanimous. [00:03:29] And now Mika and Joe are getting a lot of backlash, which will give you a little taste of in just a minute. But before you guys hear everyone else's comments about this, you should hear what Jake has to say. - Jake, what are your thoughts? - Yeah. So, look, this was complicated for, two reasons. [00:03:46] So first, should you reach out on things that you agree on? Well, of course you should. So I've never understood this thing where people that are either Democrats or on the left say no out of spite. We shouldn't work with Trump on things that we agree with him on, like antiwar. [00:04:05] Why? Why not take the win? Take the win. Right. So if Trump agrees with me on something, I'm not going to fight him just because he's Trump or on the other team. That's crazy, right? I would in fact help to try to get those things passed. As long as we agree right now. [00:04:21] Do you think that Morning Joe and I mean Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski went there to fight for paid family leave, fight for the anti-war position, fight for some policy? No, they went to go fight for their own ass 100%. So all they're doing is kissing up to him now to get access. [00:04:38] So proof's always going to be in the pudding. So you see us, you'll see us criticize Trump, and you'll see us agree on the rare occasions that we agree. And you saw us doing that when we, during Trump won during all of these years, right? Those guys, on the other hand, Trump is Hitler, Trump is Hitler. [00:04:56] Oh, Trump. One time to kiss some ass. Go down to Mar a Lago, have some breakfast. ET cetera. And Trump said, well, we agreed on some cabinet picks. I'm sure you did. The corporate ones. Rubio, Stefanik, etc.. They were probably like, oh, corporate tax cuts. They're going to be right back on board with Trump. [00:05:12] And as you'll see in a minute. Right. So you think they're going to hold them accountable. No. They their whole shtick is kiss the ass of the powerful. So this is not at all surprising. Well, Joe. Scarborough was very friendly to Donald Trump when he was first running for president in 2016. [00:05:27] I don't know what exactly happened that made their relationship go south. Scarborough certainly soured on Donald Trump. But look, I think that it's likely you're right that they want access to Trump. [00:05:42] There's also some possibility that they're genuinely worried that Trump might come after them, because he has threatened people in the media who have, in his words, been unfair to him. So who knows? I mean, look, Mika Brzezinski, just a few weeks ago, was on The View, breaking down about the prospect of Donald Trump winning the election [00:06:00] because she was so afraid of the fascists taking over, like. Yeah, no. And I thought the same thing. This is much lower probability in my opinion, but it's not impossible. They thought, yeah, he might lock up his political opponents. So let's make sure that we're not part of the resistance, that we go tell him we will serve him loyally as long as he doesn't do anything to us. [00:06:18] Right. And so why did they turn on him? Trump did his usual personal insults to Mika Brzezinski. ET cetera. And so I don't. Okay, got it right. I don't mind Mika and Joe and Joe Scarborough catching feelings over that. That's fine. Nothing wrong with that. And also, they're on MSNBC, so they had to be pretend to be against Donald Trump. [00:06:35] In reality, they don't care at all. All they care about is tax cuts for the rich and the establishment and the status quo. And if Trump gives it to them, they're ecstatic about it. If the Democrats give it to them, they're ecstatic about it. And as long as they're at the epicenter of the establishment, they're happy as they can be. [00:06:52] They've never really cared. So here is how everyone else reacted to the news that they had that dinner at Mar-A-Lago. The grotesque. The grotesque, fawning and rationalizing for a man who is promising, [00:07:08] in his words, to be an autocrat. A general who served as Donald Trump's longest serving chief of staff said, yes, he's a fascist. You have Donald Trump, who is hostile for so long to NATO. [00:07:23] Right. Who is who embraced authoritarian thugs and the least democratic and the most authoritarian leader in Europe, Viktor Orban. This is Donald Trump's hero in Europe. It's who he says he wants to be like. [00:07:40] This is not a reach. I could go back and talk about Nazi Germany and I do it. I do it without any concerns whatsoever. And if people can't start drawing the parallels, well, you're just stupid. Or you have your head in the sand or you're one of them. Do I think that Donald Trump is going to be allowed to line people [00:07:56] up against the wall and shoot them? No, he'd like to. And no doubt I know him, and I've known him for a long time. And we can see this. He would like to he's not going to be allowed to. But if he says, I'm going to take the FEC and I'm going to bring it into the white House, and I'm going to decide who's going to be on TV and who's [00:08:12] not going to be on TV. Believe him. So all those comments that Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough made prior to the election has now led to people dunking on them, and I will allow it because it's totally justified. Scott Jennings writes on Twitter. [00:08:28] Hitler getting a lot more meeting requests than I would have thought. You have Republicans against Trump saying this is why people don't trust the mainstream media anymore. Bingo. Joe and Mika, who constantly attack fascist Trump on their show, went to Mar a [00:08:45] Lago to talk with Trump over the weekend. And look, some Trump fans felt differently. They see that this could be just a new era in America, where the media is a little more fair to Trump. So Piers Morgan, for instance, says, wow, wasn't expecting this, but good for them. [00:09:02] America needs to come together again. But but the damage has been done. Okay, so I look. You know how I felt about the fear mongering that was taking place among Democrats and, you know, their mouthpieces [00:09:18] in cable news just lean into fear. Scare the bejesus out of American voters about Trump. He's Hitler. He's a fascist. He's going to come for you. He's going to put us in internment camps. Not only does this totally deteriorate trust in the media, but even worse. [00:09:35] Look, we oftentimes talk about right wingers who use violent rhetoric that could inspire people who are not all there. Right? People who might have some mental issues, mental illnesses to carry out, acts of violence. So how is it any different when Democrats do it? [00:09:51] It's not okay. Like calling him Hitler and like talking about like how he's going to put people, you know, in internment camps or like he would like to line people up and shoot them. Yeah. So look, here's, you know, where I drew the line. I drew the line between fascists and Nazi and Hitler. [00:10:08] Right. So I never said Nazi or Hitler because the Nazis killed 13 million people and had gas chambers. And Hitler drove that to me. And as you know, we talked about on this show many times, fascist is one of those words that people put meaning into. [00:10:25] But I used it because I don't know what else to use for a guy who says, I don't care if I lost the election, I want to stay in, I want to use fake electors, I want to steal the election. And by the way, if they say hang Mike pence, I don't mind so much. Those things happen. I'm never taking it back. [00:10:41] Okay? I'm not in the in these guys in the ring kissing business. Okay, so those, in my opinion, were fascist tendencies. Now, having said that, I didn't think he was Hitler killing people up against the wall. They did. Joe Scarborough did. [00:10:57] So were you worried when you went to Mar-A-Lago instead of getting some English muffins and orange juice, that he was going to line you up against the wall and execute you? No. You weren't. Were you? So was he Hitler or wasn't he? I still to this day, am worried that he's not going to leave or that the next guy or [00:11:13] JD Vance or whatever is not going to leave because he already did it once. I have empirical evidence about his wrongdoing, and I'm never going to change my mind on it. But these guys, man, just like that Hitler, you went to have breakfast with Hitler. That is amazing. [00:11:28] Okay, so now let's talk about how do you work within this situation. So I was on Piers Morgan this morning and he's got a bunch of us that were all Democrats all fighting. Okay. So I'm fighting against Harry Sison and Juan Williams and my and my brother, [00:11:44] Professor Allan Lichtman, who got all emotional. Okay. He was on. Oh, my God, I got to watch this. Okay. And I'm sorry, but I literally jingle jangled keys in his face. Okay, so you guys will see that it's fun, right? But the one thing we all agreed on was when Piers Morgan was like, yeah, you've [00:12:00] got to hold the Democrats accountable. And then as if he's going to hold Trump accountable as well. And we're like, brother, you haven't hotel Trump accountable ever, ever. And he always points out like, oh, well, I once criticized him slightly. He's so happy that Trump is back in. [00:12:16] So that's why he's happy that Morning Joe is going to kiss Trump's ass, etc.. His criticism of Trump has been microscopic, and for Kamala Harris's nonstop criticism. See, look, it's not balanced to just pretend to be a moderate [00:12:32] and only criticize one side. So Morning Joe made that mistake with the Democrats. Never, ever criticize them. I think, piers, look, I'm a little too tough on piers because he has at least has interesting conversations on. Right. But he barely ever criticizes Trump. [00:12:47] I'm curious to see what he's going to do in the second term if he's just going to play for access. But can I jump in? Sorry. Sorry to interrupt you, but I have to get this point out. Look for me. Yes, it is annoying when the critique is only focused on one side, but that is not my main issue here. [00:13:03] My main issue is that the Democratic Party, with the help of media figures like Mika Brzezinski and Morning Joe, thought it was totally fine to offer their base. Nothing. Nothing to vote for. [00:13:19] And instead just lean into the fear mongering. Fear. Fear. Fear. Fear. Be scared. Be scared. Be scared. But that was it. That was all they gave us. And it makes me angry. Okay. It should not be justified. The Democratic Party lost because they deserve to lose. They did not make a case to the American people as to why they would be [00:13:38] fundamentally better than Donald Trump, policy wise, that's the issue. That's what makes me angry. Well, you'll see in the piers, you know, show from today. Juan Williams blames the voters. Allan Lichtman blames disinformation and Elon Musk. It's just pathetic. - Okay, you take. - Some personal responsibility. [00:13:54] Democrats, for once in your lives, take personal responsibility. If you offer nothing to the electorate, they're not going to vote you in. That's the way it works. So the people I blamed were Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, because I'm pretty sure they were in charge. And I blame Democratic Party leaders who constantly lose to Donald Trump. [00:14:11] Wow. But that's like shocking like idea in the Democratic Party blaming the leaders who actually lost. No no no no, we have to protect them. Anyway, back to me. Okay. Let's focus on me. Okay. Let's keep it. No, seriously, guys, so that's piers. That's, you know, Morning Joe and how they all react to it. [00:14:28] And Anna read you how folks are reacting in general. For me, I wrote on social media over the weekend, I said, look, if you really want to cut the government, I'm here for it. Right. So how the Pentagon never passes an audit says they can't find $400 billion. [00:14:44] I'll find it and give it back to the American people. So you actually want to cut the government by 2 trillion? Elon Musk and Donald Trump. I'll take care of 20% overnight. Okay. And by the way, guys, this is really important. In the old days, the right wing reaction to that on Twitter would have been like, get. [00:15:00] Out of here. You know, where you stinking Muslim, this, that the other. Thing, right? Overwhelming positive reaction this time there's the right wing. Populists are different than you think they are. Okay. So they all came in and was like, that sounds pretty good. We know Jake doesn't like Trump, but we also know he'd love to cut the Pentagon, [00:15:18] and I bet he'd do it right. You want somebody to cut the Pentagon? I'm your guy, okay. And they just failed their seventh audit in a row. Yeah. So if you say to me, well, would you go in and work with Donald Trump, [00:15:34] even though you've said these terrible things about him and Elon Musk and you said questionable things about him in order to do the thing that you've always wanted to do for these several last several decades. Yeah. Okay. Is that complicated? You're going to let me do the thing that I've been dying to do for two decades [00:15:52] and actually bring hundreds of billions of dollars back to the American people. The number one robbery is that the Pentagon? Because they say, oh, if you try to cut a single dime, you're gonna make everybody unsafe. - You know, national security. - Is on the line. [00:16:07] Well, you're going to make them unsafe. Everybody's going to die. So that's why they loaded up with pork and more pork and wrap it in further pork. Right. Let me at them. Put me in. Coach. That is productive because that is actually getting to real agreement, anti-war, anti-corruption agreement that we've always believed in. [00:16:26] And and I'm by the way, the other thing I would say is that puts them to the test. Did you really mean the cuts? Did you really mean anti-corruption? Did you really mean anti-war? Right. But going over there and kissing his ass and now doing propaganda for him [00:16:41] without getting anything in return? That's not negotiation. That's not policy. That's not on behalf of your viewers or the voters. That's just on behalf of your own elite ass. 100%. Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. [00:16:58] You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows and specials right after they air. 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