“Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski claim that the White House attempted to blackmail the morning show duo with a possible hit piece that involved going after Brzezinski’s children.
New York Magazine writer and MSNBC contributor Gabe Sherman reports that Scarborough texted with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, about the pending National Enquirer story that would detail his then-secret relationship with Brzezinski.
“Kushner told Scarborough that he would need to personally apologize to Trump in exchange for getting Enquirer owner David Pecker to stop the story,” Sherman wrote. “Scarborough says he refused, and the Enquirer published the story in print on June 5, headlined ‘Morning Joe Sleazy Cheating Scandal!’”
Scarborough and Brzezinski, who are now engaged to be married, penned an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Friday titled, “Donald Trump is not well,” in response to the president’s Twitter attack on the pair. In the column, Scarborough and Brzezinski said that White House staffers threatened them, saying they would have to beg Trump to spike a story in the National Enquirer.
“This year, top White House staff members warned that the National Enquirer was planning to publish a negative article about us unless we begged the president to have the story spiked. We ignored their desperate pleas,” Scarborough and Brzezinski wrote.
The “Morning Joe” hosts did not specifically name Kushner, but he fits the description of a White House staffer.
On Friday’s “Morning Joe,” Brzezinski called it “blackmail. “And let me explain what they were threatening,” she said. “They were calling my children. They were calling close friends … And our response talking to my ex-husband and Joe and my kids was screw it, let them run it. Go ahead and run it, we’re not calling.”
It is well known that Trump is friends with Pecker and the president has endorsed the publication during his speeches. The supermarket rag has become Trump’s cheerleader-in-chief, while simultaneously churning out a stream of hit pieces about his rivals.
America Media (which owns National Enquirer) COO Dylan Howard responded in a statement: “At the beginning of June, we accurately reported a story that recounted the relationship between Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the truth of which is not in dispute. At no time did we threaten either Joe or Mika or their children in connection with our reporting on the story. We have no knowledge of any discussions between the White House and Joe and Mika about our story, and absolutely no involvement in those discussions.”
The Washington Post column was in response to Trump saying Brzezinski was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” in a personal attack during a Twitter tirade on Thursday. Trump doubled down on Friday, tweeting that Scarborough called him to stop the National Enquirer article.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880771685460344832
However, Scarborough quickly responded and claims that he has texts and phone records to prove his point.
Yet another lie. I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven't spoken with you in many months. https://t.co/TZWiElo6Gs
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 30, 2017
Why do you keep lying about things that are so easily disproven? What is wrong with you? https://t.co/aAoUj5HYZS
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 30, 2017
NBC News communications executive Mark Kornblau hinted on Twitter that he had Scarborough’s back, while the “Morning Joe” namesake explained that he was updating NBC in real time.
“NBC execs knew in real time about the calls and who made them to me,” Scarborough told RedState. “That’s why Mark Kornblau wrote about contemporaneous texts. I showed him and executives as they were coming in to keep them advised.”