According to recent reports, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were concerned that former Trump attorney general pick Matt Gaetz would investigate them over a “baseless conspiracy theory.” It is unclear whether the co-hosts are still concerned with being investigated after Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for attorney general.
After years of pushing hostile rhetoric and attacking the president-elect, CNN host Brian Stelter reported that Brzezinksi and Scarborough are now worried that they may face retribution from the Trump administration. In a seeming attempt to make peace with the president-elect, the duo recently met with him at Mar-A-Lago to “restart communications.”
The “baseless conspiracy theory” the hosts are concerned about the Trump administration looking into the death of a former intern of Scarborough’s when he was a congressman in Florida. Lori Klausutis died at Scarborough’s office in 2001, where an autopsy determined that she had passed out and hit her head. Trump has previously suggested that Scarborough may be responsible for Klausutis’ death.
Journalist Dylan Byers recently reported on the supposed concerns from the “Morning Joe” hosts, claiming, “Specifically, Joe and Mika have told friends and associates they’re afraid that Trump and Gaetz will resurrect a decades-old, totally bullshit, birther-level conspiracy theory about the death of Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old intern in Scarborough’s former Florida congressional office who died in 2001 from complications relating to a heart condition, and use it to apply legal pressure on Scarborough and otherwise make his life a living hell.”
Byers continued, “The couple’s anxiety stems, in particular, from testimony that former White House communications director and current View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin gave in 2022 during the January 6 hearings, during which she recounted running into Gaetz outside of the Oval Office. Farah Griffin testified that Gaetz was carrying a folder filled with “conspiracy theories about Joe Scarborough murdering his intern,” which he then presented to President Trump, who later tweeted about it.”
However, the journalist maintained that the idea of Scarborough being tied to the death of the intern was a “baseless conspiracy theory.” Regardless, Byers noted that the co-hosts are “petrified” of being investigated and facing retribution. “Despite the baseless nature of the conspiracy theory, Joe and Mika “are petrified of retribution and of Gaetz opening an investigation into Joe and the intern,” one source with knowledge of their concerns said.”
He continued, “That’s what this was about. It has nothing to do with ratings or Comcast. It’s all about fear of retribution and investigation.” Another source close to the matter said Joe and Mika believed that by meeting with Trump, they could assuage his potential desire for reckless payback and thus nuke any possibility of having to endure the headlines of a Gaetz witch hunt or legal torture campaign. (Reached for comment, Scarborough referred me to an MSNBC spokesperson, who denied this characterization of the motivations for Joe and Mika’s Mar-a-Lago visit and said it was both false and inaccurate.)”
Watch the “Morning Joe” voice concerns about being fired:
Featured image credit: By U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – MSNBC Morning Joe, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60975991
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