After two years of suspension following posts that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol, former president Donald Trump will be allowed access to his accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The move will reactivate Trump’s accounts in the coming weeks with new guardrails in an effort to deter the behavior that got him banned in the first place.
Parent company Meta announced the news Wednesday – and it was the main topic going into Thursday’s installment of “Morning Joe,” where guest panelists George Conway, Jon Meecham and New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay expressed concern, disgust and overwhelming moral conundrums.
Responding to Meta’s stance that the threat from Trump has “sufficiently receded,” Gay said that she’s not seeing any signs of that.
“I guess there’s no threat to democracy, we can all just go home now. The threat has passed,” she said sarcastically. “It’s disturbing because it really makes you kind of wonder whether this approach was thoughtful or simply reactive, wanting to get back in the social media business of having someone who has relevance in American society posting on your platform.”
Lawyer and former Trump ally-turned “Morning Joe” regular Conway also shared his thoughts, saying that it’s “an absolutely mystifying decision” from Meta.
“I mean, I just think that they think, ‘Oh, well the fire’s out, so – even though this guy has a cash of matches and gasoline that he carries around with him – let’s just let him play with matches again,” Conway said. “It’s ridiculous. Because if you look at what he says daily, day-in, day-out, on his Truth Social website, he’s in a lot of ways worse than he was a couple of years ago. He’s lost touch with reality in a way. I mean, he’s always had little touch with reality, but he’s worse today … It’s not gonna work out very well.”
Meacham, however, seemed to distill the real reason behind Meta’s decision – “I don’t think it’s all that mystifying, if I may,” he said. “Facebook needs money, Trump needs relevance. I think it’s a devil’s bargain here, and I think ultimately Facebook will be making a deal with the devil, and probably the check’s gonna bounce – because it never actually works out.”
Watch the full “Morning Joe” panel discussion in the video above.