Dishing on Morning Joe: A Trump Crush Gone Bust But Will Joe's Musical Rain Money?

These days I try to watch 'Morning Joe' as little as possible. So I missed host Joe Scarborough's criticism of president-elect Donald Trump for his tweets against Meryl Streep's Golden Globe speech. Actually Scarborough delivered a strong message to Trump as Inauguration Day approaches: "Stop Tweeting!"

"Stop tweeting about Meryl Streep," the Republican former Congressman continued. "Stop putting words into the mouths of intel agencies. I'm serious, someone around him needs to tell him, give it a rest. Start preparing for your inauguration. Stop being so thin-skinned."

In the words of Vice President Joe Biden, who weighed in on Trump a few days ago pre-Street meldown "Grow up."

Scarborough's Trump tone was contrasted with his and Mika's battle with fellow journalists last week.

The 'Morning Joe' duo was miffed over accusations that they "partied with Trump" at Mar-a-Lago on New Year's Eve. The show led the way in the rise of Donald Trump as a presidential candidate, turning their show over to Trump on a nearly daily basis.  The duo defended themselves "against the haters" in a December 2015 Vanity Fair interview.

“Partied? You’re very good at pushing fake news," Scarborough knifed back to Sopan Deb, a former CBS reporter now at the Times. "You should write for CNN. Apparently making up facts is fine if you’re writing about us,” he replied, before launching into an explanation for why he was at Trump’s Palm Beach report. (He and his co-host, Mika Brzezinski, were trying to score an interview with the president-elect, he said, and this was the meeting time Trump gave them.) “One of the more entertaining aspects of media coverage of media is how so many who blast Trump for half truths attack us with half truths.”

Soon afterward, Scarborough’s NBC colleague Chuck Todd tweeted his own take on the Twitter tiff:  “It really stinks to watch others continue help ruin the reputation of your industry. But fighting each other ...only hurts the democracy.” Scarborough issued a followup: “Yes. I find that people misrepresenting others and lying is indeed corrosive. I know you agree with me that facts matter,” he wrote.

Scarborough followed with an op-ed titled 'The Media's hypocrisy and hyperventilating in the age of Trump' for The Washington Post and an hour-long interview on CNN Money. Clearly the duo is hyper sensitive about accusations that they are in Trump's camp. Joe S asked in his closing paragraph: "So why has there been such an avalanche of outrage on Twitter and sneering in some press rooms whenever Mika and I find ourselves in the same area code as Donald J. Trump? Is it because of media bias against Republican reporters such as myself?"

Speaking only for myself, I will never forgive Joe and Mika -- who rarely completes a sentence with any complex thought -- with their over-the-top love for Trump and Bernie, while saying that Hillary shouldn't be wearing orange (it was coral) because it reminded the public that she might well be headed for prison. 

GQ profiled Scarborough in September 2016, assessing the real criticisms that 'Morning Joe' was on Trump's side this way:

You wouldn't know it now—after all, since late spring, Scarborough has been one of Trump's biggest critics—but in the first eight months of the Trump candidacy, Scarborough often seemed to be an adjunct of the Donald's campaign, lobbing softball questions at Trump when he'd phone in to the show, and giving him tongue baths in absentia when he wasn't on the program. Trump, Scarborough told his viewers, was "a masterful politician," the veritable second coming of Ronald Reagan.

That sort of sycophancy didn't sit well with some of Scarborough's colleagues (various NBC employees I spoke with characterized it as "unseemly," "inappropriate," and "a disgrace"), but the flattery certainly tickled Trump. "You have me almost as a legendary figure," he complimented Scarborough in February; on another occasion, he referred to Scarborough and Brzezinski as "supporters."

Leave it up to GQ to inform us that Joe Scarborough is working on a musical called -- what else -- "It's Trump: The Musical." It's actually 'Hamilton' meets 'The Book of Mormans', Scarborough -- who has no small ego himself -- gushed to GQ's Jason Zengerle.

GQ also gossips that Scarborough's "gaggle of attendants is the source of much asmusement inside and outside NBC. "Matt Lauer is a $25 million-a-year-broadcaster and he doesn't have any of the accoutrements Joe has," notes an unnamed news executive. "It's like he's the King of Liechtenstein."

It was this Trump Jr. size ego that early-on did put Joe Scarborough in the position of being Donald Trump's front man. There are insiders who speculate that oe actually envisioned himself as a VP pick.

While Scarborough works to gain financial backers for his Trumpian Broadway extravaganza, he plays with his own band 'Morning oe Music' at Prohibition, a cramped Manhattan bar on the Upper West Side.

Nearby, Mika Brzezinski can usually be found sipping Campari and OJ, with the duo neither denying rumors that they are a couple or confirming them. Zengerle concludes his highly entertaining and informative piece:

"Barnicle and Haass nodded their heads to the beat. The crowd screamed for more. After an hour-long set, Scarborough hopped off the stage. He gave a few high-fives and, with a security guard at his side, exited through the kitchen like James Brown might have. Outside, in the drizzle of a summer night, the real world—or at least some simulacrum of it—beckoned. He had a cable-news show at six the next morning. And he'd need to be there by 6:05…6:10 at the latest."