MSNBC yanks anti-Trump 'Morning Joe' off air following assassination attempt

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MSNBC pulls 'Morning Joe' from air after Trump assassination attempt

According to CNN, the MSNBC morning show was sidelined Monday morning out of concern over rhetoric following the Pennsylvania rally shooting.

MSNBC pulled its flagship AM program "Morning Joe" from airing on Monday in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Trump.

Viewers who tuned in expecting to see the staunchly anti-Trump program, hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, were greeted instead by continued NBC News special reporting on the attempt on Trump's life on Saturday. A spokesperson said "Morning Joe" will resume airing on Tuesday.

According to a CNN report, a person familiar with the decision said it was made in part over fear that one of the show's many guests over a 4-hour broadcast "might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and network as a whole." An MSNBC spokesperson vehemently denied the CNN report. 

According to CNN's report, Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, decided to yank the show in consultation with MSNBC president Rashida Jones, as well as the show's co-hosts. 

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MSNBC yanked its flagship, staunchly anti-Trump show "Morning Joe" off the airwaves Monday in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Trump.  (Screenshot/MSNBC)

Scarborough posted on X on Sunday, "Political violence has scarred America’s landscape from JFK through January 6th. Republican and Democratic politicians alike have been victims and this violence has caused incalculable harm to America. Thank God President Trump is safe."

He also wrote, "Our family is praying this morning for President Trump, those injured yesterday, and for the loved ones of the American tragically killed. May God grant mercy on them and deliver us from the violent political rhetoric that coursens [sic] debate and endangers public servants."

"We should also keep in our prayers Gabby Giffords, Steve Scalise, and Paul Pelosi—who all still suffer from the wounds inflicted upon them by political violence."

The call by MSNBC to keep "Morning Joe" off the airwaves shocked political observers, with some conservatives saying it demonstrated a lack of trust in one of its most high-profile shows to sensitively cover a fraught situation.

"The fact that Morning Joe's own network can't trust its flagship brand not to spew reckless and inflammatory crap during breaking news tells you all you need to know about the credibility of the MSNBC line-up," a veteran Republican consultant told Fox News Digital.

Others took to X to express thoughts on MSNBC scrapping its flagship morning show on a "huge day" in politics: 

OutKick founder Clay Travis said it was the "biggest Monday" in Scarborough’s TV career, but MSNBC pulled him off the air "because they’re afraid of what the hosts or guests might say about the Trump assassination. Damn. I’d quit if any of my bosses tried this."

The news stirred up the left, too.

Liberal journalist Jeff Jarvis fumed on X, "What the f---, MSNBC? You preempted your excellent weekend programming… and now you've silenced [Morning Joe] in favor of your anodyne streaming news cos-play called Now? This is when we need the analysis and conversation these shows bring us (yes, with controversy; that is how public discourse works through it: with discussion). It is shocking that NBC/Comcast do not understand their own company's programs and raison d'etre."

A spokesman for MSNBC didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Scarborough and Brzezinski have a complicated history with Trump. The two hosts stood out in their bullishness on his political chances in 2015 and 2016 and frequently interviewed him on their show, but they became two of his most vehement critics after he became president.

Before turning on Trump, Scarborough and Brzezinski hung around Mar-a-Lago and were once accused of colluding with Trump during a town hall event when a hot mic allegedly captured a commercial-break conversation. Things have certainly changed. 

Both Republicans and Democrats have called for Americans to lower the temperature and unite since the attempted assassination of Trump. Some of the media’s most anti-Trump rhetoric has occurred on "Morning Joe" in recent years. The show's hosts and guests have repeatedly called Trump an authoritarian threat to the nation. 

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Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is moved from the stage after an attempt on his life at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Scarborough called Trump a "White supremacist president" in 2019, calling on business leaders to stop supporting him. The "Morning Joe" namesake has since called Trump supporters "losers," and has criticized the former president on a near-daily basis for years. 

Trump was referred to as a "racist tin-pot dictator" by guest John Heilemann in 2020.

Known to be one of President Biden's favorite programs and beloved by the New York and Washington liberal establishment, "Morning Joe" has taken on new influence in recent weeks due to Biden's political woes.

Biden even called into the program this month and defiantly proclaimed that he would be staying in the 2024 presidential race despite concerns about his ability to win re-election. 

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Trump was wounded in the ear by a would-be assassin's bullet on Saturday at his Pennsylvania rally. The shooter killed one attendee and critically wounded two others before being killed by law enforcement.

Trump will accept the 2024 Republican nomination for president this week in Milwaukee.