Former lawmaker and MSNBC analyst David Jolly appeared to take a shot at MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Friday while talking about how Democrats should move forward.
“We didn’t wake up after the election and think, I’m upset because I was wrong. We’re upset because we know we’re right, but we’re on the losing side of this battle. And so what does that mean for a responsible media, for a responsible electorate, for a responsible Democratic Party in this environment?” Jolly began. “Don’t just say we’re going to give equity to Donald Trump, which some people are doing in the Democratic Party, in media, among the electorate.”
Brzezinski and Scarborough revealed to their viewers that the pair met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in the weeks following his win.
Scarborough and Brzezinski said during the show that it was time to start engaging with Trump.
“But for nearly 80 million Americans, election denialism, public trials, January 6, were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote. Joe and I realize it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him,” Brzezinski said.
Brzezinski and Scarborough have been some of Trump’s biggest critics in media in the last few years. Trump said after the meeting that it went well.
Brzezinski said she was surprised by the backlash to their meeting during a podcast interview.
“I’ve been surprised at the backlash, and the way I look at it is, people are really scared,” she said on “The Daily Beast Podcast.” “It’s one of the reasons we went in there, is people are really scared about Donald Trump’s comments about political adversaries, a lot of people are scared because of what has happened with abortion. These are all issues that are important to me and in some ways personal to me, but definitely personal to the people I really care about.”
Jolly encouraged Democrats to “double down” in holding Trump accountable.
“The only answer is to double down in holding Donald Trump and his allies accountable and double down on trying to present a democracy that represents all people, even in a losing environment,” he said.
