Megyn Kelly: Mika and Joe Cozying Up to Trump for Relevance
SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly shared her take on MSNBC's Morning Joe hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, visiting Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Donald Trump. The meeting followed Trump's significant and historic victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in last week’s election.
During Monday’s segment, Kelly criticized the left-leaning co-hosts, suggesting their sudden effort to reconcile with Trump after years of criticism stems from a desire to stay relevant. However, she expressed skepticism about the longevity of this newfound rapport.
“I have a little prediction for you, this won’t last. I’ve been through this before. The ratings always tank for the cable channel that was most behind the losing candidate,” Kelly said. “Fox News in 2012 was a bloodbath after Romney went down. Our ratings went off a cliff.
“I remember being in the meetings. Even [then-CEO] Roger [Ailes] was in a panic at that moment. They came back to heights we had never seen before. And the way that that happened was Barack Obama started actually governing in his second term and doing a bunch of controversial things, and then Fox got chugging again and wound up figuring out that it’s actually better for their ratings to be in the opposition,” she added.
Kelly continued, “They’re not going to get the same returns by being fair and balanced about Trump, even though they desperately want access to power. I believe this is why they went there. For two reasons,” she explained. “They desperately want access to power. That’s why they licked Joe Biden’s boots, then quickly licked Kamala.
“Now they’re licking Trump’s because they can’t stand a world in which they’re as irrelevant as they are. Don’t believe me, look at their ratings and the voters who ignored their claims of Hitler,” Kelly remarked. “So that’s one of the reasons why they did it. But once they start chugging again, their core viewership is very left. That’s who watches that show. That’s why you’ve seen Joe Scarborough migrate out of the Republican Party.”
She further commented on the media’s general trend: “And the machine will do what it does, which is force them to continue to go to the left. This thing veers to the left. All media veers to the left, especially MSNBC. All their cocktail parties, all their friends, will veer them back to the left. They will get absolutely no points for saying anything nice or fair about Trump, and they will do what they’ve been doing for nine years, which is back on the bashing train,” Kelly predicted.
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Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the married co-hosts awkwardly addressed reports that their network might be sold.
A recent report from The Wall Street Journal revealed Comcast’s intention to spin off its NBCUniversal cable channels, including MSNBC, CNBC, and others.
“Comcast is expected to announce Wednesday that it is moving forward with a plan to spin off its NBCUniversal cable TV networks, according to people familiar with the situation, acknowledging that it will be better off without a business that was once its crown jewel. The company, which last month said it was studying the idea, will separate off entertainment and news channels including MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, E!, Syfy and Golf Channel. Those assets generated about $7 billion in revenue in the 12 months ended Sept. 30,” WSJ’s Amol Sharma reported.
Brzezinski delivered the news in a straightforward manner, while Scarborough tried to lighten the mood with humor, mentioning his wife’s penthouse.
“I will say really quickly on this, you know, Drudge at the top said, like, ‘News melts down!’ all this other stuff,” Scarborough said, referencing the Drudge Report.
“I mean, I could be completely wrong: we could all be fired a year from now. When this happens, you never know what’s going to happen,” he added.
Brzezinski, clearly uneasy, quipped, “Or tomorrow,” with a slightly strained laugh, hinting at her discomfort with the network’s uncertain future.