Mika, Joe, And The Art Of Obeying In Advance

“Do not obey in advance.” This is the first lesson in Timothy Snyder’s book, On Tyranny: Lessons from the 20th Century, which has been read worldwide and translated into numerous languages — but sadly, apparently, not by certain Americans who claim to be journalists. Recently, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, paid Trump a little visit at Mar-a-Lago where they bravely groveled and kissed the ring.

Every single authoritarian, Trump included, threatens the media. Members of the media have a duty to resist such threats and stand up to those who attempt to intimidate them. Mika and Joe decided as soon as Trump was elected to beg him for a meeting.

Mika, in the manner of a North Korean TV personality, explains in a clip in which they attempt to justify their visit, that Trump is “interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues” despite Trump making it very clear that he is not interested in anything resembling that numerous times. Mika says that the January 6 terrorist attack and Trump’s election denialism simply are not important. The couple’s weird justifications for meeting with Trump and shameless attempt to whitewash him for viewers, however, wasn’t because they felt it was time for a “different approach.” It was because they are cowards.

Mika And Joe, Shameless Cowards

Mika and Joe did what no serious people would: they normalized a fascist. One would expect a representative of Fox News or Newsmax or OANN to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago. One might understand journalists showing up for an interview in which they asked tough questions — Mika and Joe did not even get an interview. But normalizing Trump? Only a coward who is terrified of him would ask for a meeting just to kiss the ring. And that’s exactly what happened. CNN’s Brian Stelter reports that Mika and Joe were scared that Trump would come after them and the visit was an attempt to save their own behinds:

According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Scarborough and Brzezinski were credibly concerned that they could face governmental and legal harassment from the incoming Trump administration. Knowing that Trump has threatened retribution against his perceived political opponents, and that Trump has promoted lies about Scarborough and Brzezinski in the past, the MSNBC hosts decided to reach out to the president-elect. 

The two sources generally agreed with Joe and Mika’s impression of the situation at hand – namely, that the incoming Trump administration could use its wide-ranging powers to punish people deemed enemies. Trump ally Elon Musk wrote on X overnight, in a post supporting Matt Gaetz for attorney general, that America needs Gaetz to “put powerful bad actors in prison.”

Mika and Joe did not get an interview. They did not get respect, either. They got humiliation. On Truth Social, Trump mocked the couple.

Trump wasn’t the only one to mock Mika and Joe’s cowardice. Fellow MSNBC personality Katie Phang tweeted, seemingly in response to this, that “normalizing Trump is a bad idea. Period.”

MSNBC viewers were similarly unimpressed. Morning Joe’s ratings plummeted following Mika and Joe’s shameless attempt to save themselves and utter betrayal of their audience.

The Art Of Obeying In Advance

“Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given,” Timothy Snyder writes in On Tyranny. “In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”

Mika and Joe obeyed in advance. In doing so, they taught Trump that he can threaten and bully the media into submission. Just like Jeff Bezos when he killed an endorsement of Kamala Harris in the Washington Post to curry favor with Trump, Mika and Joe are cowards. And they should have no future in any form of journalism if they will, when confronted by power, tuck their tails between their legs and leave a trail of urine behind them as they flee.