Joe Scarborough says Donald Trump once threatened to cancel a planned lunch and invite Sean Hannity instead, after the MSNBC host criticized one of Trump’s aides on live TV.
Scarborough told the New York Times how a phone call with the president in January turned into a screaming match after Scarborough and his “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski mocked Trump’s aide Stephen Miller for his head-scratching on-air proclamation that the president should “not be questioned.”
“It went back and forth for 20 or 30 minutes and it was a very ugly call,” Scarborough said. “He was screaming at me saying, ‘Why are you being so tough on this kid — I invited you to lunch at the White House, and you know I could have invited Sean Hannity.’”
Scarborough’s response: “Well, invite Sean Hannity — we’re not going to be schmoozed because you gave us some fish.”
Meanwhile, Hannity took to some light pot-stirring Saturday with a veiled threat: “I’m am very very close to going “there” with Joe and Mika. Sick of their BS,” the Fox News host tweeted, along with a link to a conservative blog post bashing Scarborough and Brzezinski.
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/881216890990981120
It’s unclear what the “there” in Hannity’s tweet means. But, as Mediaite noted, back in January, the Fox host took a shot at Scarborough on Twitter claiming that the MSNBC host shouldn’t mock him because Scarborough had “many skeletons” in his “closet (& office).”
Hannity was likely referencing a conspiracy theory that had been floating around involving a dead intern found in Scarborough’s district office when he was still a Congressman in 2001.
“While there is absolutely no evidence Scarborough had anything to do with the office worker’s death, as it was found that she died from heart problems and hitting her head on a desk, conspiracy theories were tossed around claiming Joe was responsible and that’s why he resigned from Congress,” Mediaite wrote earlier this year.
This is just the latest round in the Trump v. cable TV war. On Saturday, Trump attacked Scarborough and “dumb as a rock” Mika Brzezinski for their “low rated show.”
“Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses,” Trump tweeted. “Too bad!”