“Morning Joe” co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough think the world may need a reminder of just how former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign first kicked off in November. They argued Monday that it was a rush-job announcement meant to get ahead of a potential indictment, and one that three of his children — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Tiffany Trump — were conspicuously absent from.
“Remember, he couldn’t even get his family members together there with him — couldn’t get his kids to be there,” Scarborough said of the Mar-a-Lago announcement.
“Still can’t,” Brzezinski chimed in with a quick snipe, before Scarborough added that “he had to get out there as fast as possible because he didn’t know when the indictment was coming.”
The aside came during Monday’s “Morning Joe” as the two co-hosts tore into Rep. James Comer and other Republican officials who are arguing that Manhattan DA Alvin Brigg’s ongoing investigation and possible indictment of Trump over hush money payments sent to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 wouldn’t be happening had he not announced he’s running for a second term.
“I don’t believe that Bragg would be doing this if Donald Trump were not running for president,” Comer told “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper on Sunday. “And that’s something we would like to ask Mr. Bragg, as well: Would you be doing this if he weren’t a declared candidate for President of the United States?”
The problem is, the Stormy Daniels investigation was one of several investigations already well under way when Trump officially announced his reelection bid in November. As “Morning Joe” and many other news media outlets predicted, Trump’s campaign came together earlier than is typical precisely so that he and his allies could make that argument.
“He said the only reason why he’s doing this, why, he wouldn’t be doing this if Donald Trump weren’t running for president,” Scarborough said, mocking Comer. “As if he forgot all the times before Trump announced his latest run from the presidency, everybody was predicting he would do it. Why? So his allies could claim, like Comer just did, that the investigations were politically motivated.”
“We said for a year that if Donald Trump ran and that if he announced early, it would be so he could say the four investigations that were currently moving forward were connected to a political campaign,” he continued. “The problem is, the political campaign wasn’t going when these investigations were going. So Donald Trump gets out there very early. Remember, he couldn’t even get his family members to go there with him — couldn’t get his kids to be there. He had to get out there as fast as possible because he didn’t know when the indictment was coming.”
Trump’s announcement appeared so haphazard, in fact, that in addition to three of his children, hardly any of his congressional allies – including prominent figures like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene – were in attendance at Mar-a-Lago for the big day.
Following the 2024 campaign announcement, Ivanka Trump released a statement saying that she no longer intends to be involved in her father’s politics.