OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski lost her mind on live television on Monday when she role-played an awkward segment asking Republicans about former President Donald Trump’s comments about the U.S. Constitution.
Trump released a statement over the weekend on his platform Truth Social, where he responded to newly released information exposing Twitter’s effort to censor the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story shortly before the 2020 election. Brzezinski brought this up during the segment and began role-playing Republican lawmakers and Trump.
Brzezinski offered her version of what Republican lawmakers should have said to Trump: “To terminate the Constitution is to terminate America. Donald Trump is wrong, and I can no longer support him at all as a presidential candidate, as an American citizen. You can’t be an American citizen and want to terminate the Constitution.”
She went on to condescendingly tell those Republicans, “You can do it. Write it down. It’s easy, and it’s important.”
Brzezinski and co-host John Heilemann then role-played reporter and GOP official as they mocked a Republican response to something Trump said.
“Do we want to go back to Charlottesville? I’m sorry, you only have a short-term memory. Do we want to go back to Jan. 6. Do we really want to go back to that? Your guy is talking about terminating the constitution. Can you denounce it? They can’t?” asked Brzezinski.
“He’s a private citizen, and he says a lot of things,” replied Heilemann.
“Really?” asked Brzezinski. “Can you support him as a presidential candidate?”
“He’s not going to be a presidential candidate, Mika,” said Heilemann, who added, “When the voters speak, I’ll make that determination later.”
“And so what does that make people who cannot say to terminate the Constitution is to
terminate America, and we cannot support a … fascist?” asked Brzezinski.
“Mika, you and your left-wing agenda as you attack me,” said Heilemann.
“Really? Left-wing?” said Brzezinski. “I’m just for American democracy. I’m for our Constitution. That’s what we’re arguing here.”
WATCH:
The problems are mounting at MSNBC.
MSNBC and NBC are moving Chuck Todd’s “Meet the Press Daily” to a streaming-only option for viewers and changing the name to “Meet the Press Now.” The 1 PM hour on MSNBC will now be called “MSNBC Reports” with veteran anchor Chris Jansing.
Other insiders reportedly told the Beast that Todd remains unpopular with viewers and that maybe he is the reason the show’s ratings have sunk.
“At what point does anyone have the balls to say ‘Maybe the problem is the face of it’?” one Meet the Press source said.
The writing has been on the wall for some time.
A report recently detailed how Todd’s “Meet The Press” has slumped to his worst rating period since he took over the Sunday morning program.
“In top-secret rating data that has caught the attention of network brass, RadarOnline.com learned Meet The Press — the longest-running show in television history — recorded its lowest-rated quarter over the April-May-June period. Todd peaked at more than 4 million viewers in the first quarter of 2017 (January-February-March) in the midst of Donald Trump’s presidency,” Radar Online reported.
“But in recent Nielsen Media Research ratings, the magic number faded to a paltry 2.4 million — shaving off a third of the notoriously goateed anchor’s audience. Making matters even worse for the Peacock network and its executive, Todd has also been in ratings free fall with viewers in the younger A25-54 demo,” the report continued.
“At his peak, the man who ex-prez Trump referred to as sleepy eyes had more than 1.2 million viewers in the first quarter of 2017, the same period when he enjoyed 4 million overall viewers. But over the past three months, the star NBC political analyst logged just 492,000 fans in the all-important younger demographic,” the report added.
“This does not augur well for Chuck,” an industry insider told Radar Online. “Chuck lost his gig at MSNBC and the guise that he’d rather leave MSNBC completely and focus on Meet the Press on Sunday.”
NEW: NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ Shakeup Puts Chuck Todd in Jeopardy https://t.co/oaF38F3eiU
— Lachlan Cartwright (@LachCartwright) August 29, 2022
“But when you are focusing on the Sunday show and it is in freefall, perhaps you have to consider whether it is you and not the show itself that is driving viewers away. NBC News Chairman Cesar Conde must really be concerned. This is like David Gregory all over again,” the insider said.
Cable news data analysis shows that the show’s viewership has plummeted over the years, particularly since 2019.
