MSNBC “Morning Joe” host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough said his show is so influential in Washington, D.C., that President Trump and his team have no choice but to pay attention to it.
In a new interview with Variety, Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski said even though they’ve been harshly critical of the Trump administration in recent weeks, they remain “insiders” at the White House.
“Well, we are still insiders; we talk to everybody there,” Brzezinski said. “And we are still trying to guide people through it, and understand it ourselves.”
Trump was regularly on “Morning Joe” for interviews throughout the Republican primary, but his relationship with the show has since turned sour, as Scarborough and Brzezinski have intensified their criticism of his White House.
But Scarborough said Trump still can’t ignore the show.
“The fact is we’ve been able to [maintain access] because we have a show that — at least inside this White House and the last White House — they believe that all the people [who] matter, influence media throughout the day, influence politics throughout the day, watched our show,” he said. “Donald Trump didn’t want to talk to us because he liked us; he needed to talk to us because everyone from Paul Ryan to Chuck Schumer to Nancy Pelosi to Supreme Court justices to editors at the New York Times and Washington Post all watch our show.”
