Scarborough says he advised former CNN chief against hosting controversial Trump town hall

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said he told former CNN chief Chris Licht not to hold a town hall with former President Trump, an event that came just weeks before Licht’s ouster at the network.

“Chris Licht called me a week beforehand and said ‘What should I do?’ I said, ‘Don’t do it.'” Scarborough said on his morning talk show Friday. “And he said, ‘But if I have to do it, what do I do?’ I said, ‘Ask him one question. And I will tell you, this worked for me politically, and when I was in debates with people, you ask one question: Did Joe Biden win the election?’ He goes off, you know he’s going to go off. This is Elvis ’77. We know his act, right?”

“And then,” Scarborough continued, “you follow up and say, ‘But 63 federal courts said you lost this election. Are they lying?’ He goes on and goes on. ‘But the United States Supreme Court said, your Supreme Court, said you lost the election. Are they lying?’ And you just keep going.”

The host’s comments were first highlighted by Mediate.

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Licht was a leading producer at MSNBC and helped launch Scarborough’s popular morning program.

The former executive producer at that network and CBS spent just over a year on the job at CNN before being fired by its parent company following a string of major programming changes and internal controversies.

The town hall with Trump, which earned CNN its largest single ratings night of 2023, was met with strong pushback internally at the network and a bevy of outside media criticism.