MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski disputed The Atlantic staff writer David Frum’s accusations that the co-hosts are giving into their fears of President-elect Donald Trump during a Thursday segment.

Frum joined “Morning Joe” for a Wednesday segment where he joked that if Trump’s defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth is “too drunk for Fox News, [he is] very, very drunk indeed,” leading Brzezinski to apologize for his remarks in the next segment. Frum argued in a column titled, “The Sound of Fear on Air,” on Wednesday that Scarborough and Brzezinski issued the apology due to their fear of Trump attempting to “retaliate against unfriendly media.”

“I recognize, too, that the prominence of the program has exposed the hosts and producers to extraordinary pressures and threats in the Trump era,” Frum wrote. “Trump has spoken again and again of his determination to retaliate against unfriendly media. Shortly before leaving office, Trump amplified a conspiracy theory that Brzezinski’s co-host, Joe Scarborough, was a murderer … Now MSNBC may be spun off by Comcast, leaving the future of the liberal network very much in question. The hosts of Morning Joe visited Mar-a-Lago in November to mend fences with Trump. They genuinely have a lot to worry about.”

Scarborough disputed Frum’s claims about them being fearful of Trump by calling on the media to practice “civility” and interview those they may disagree with politically.

“First of all, we weren’t talking about Donald Trump, we were talking about Fox News,” Scarborough said. “Secondly, if we get to a state in our media culture where civility is confused for fear, if by simply saying ‘hey, let’s not say that about an entire network’ and that somehow equates you to Vichy France? Then we’re in trouble. And again, let me underline this, David meant nothing by it. It was just a throwaway line. It was a just a throwaway joke and I do hope he comes on this show to talk about it.”

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“But again, I gotta say, Mika at this point, I’m sick and tired of the nonsense and I wish we would all just get to work doing the things we need to do which is our job, which is talking to people that are going to determine where this country goes over the next four years and to do the reporting and have the people that will come on as we have done with Matt Gaetz, as we have done with Pete Hegseth, as we have done with Tulsi Gabbard and as we will do for the next 4 years,” Scarborough continued.

Scarborough and Brzezinski announced they had a cordial conversation with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in mid-November to discuss their concerns about his cabinet picks and domestic policy proposal. Brzezinski criticized those who accused the co-hosts of “kissing the ring” during Thursday’s segment, arguing that those in the media who refuse to talk to Trump are causing conflict by being too “stuck in their hatred.” (RELATED: Scarborough Says He Was ‘Flooded’ With ‘Very Supportive’ Calls After Mar-A-Lago Visit) 

“The meeting that we went to was not kissing the ring or bending the knee or all your other ridiculous headlines, it was a serious meeting and quite frankly, if we hadn’t told anyone about it, if we hadn’t shared it with out viewers to be transparent and that was our call because it was a meeting on background, nobody would’ve known about it,” Brzezinski said.

The “Morning Joe” co-hosts and several of their guests have likened Trump to former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and have accused him of being a fascist dictator. Scarborough accused Trump of being the single biggest “threat to democracy since the Civil War” and compared him to Hitler during a Sept. 23 segment, while one of their guests Claire McCaskill claimed he is “more dangerous than Hitler” during a November 22, 2023, segment of the program.

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