Mika Brzezinski scolded her husband and “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough during the show on Friday after he mocked her for blasting Republicans over coronavirus measures.
The co-hosts were discussing President-elect Joe Biden’s push for Americans to wear masks for 100 days, according to a report by Mediaite, which first noted the exchange.
Brzezinski said she wondered how “quickly the numbers would change,” and asked if some of the “friends” that Scarborough had talked with and other Republican “stooges” would admit that measures like wearing a mask would have changed the trajectory of the pandemic. <p<
“Should I ask them that way?” Scarborough asked, which led to an exchange between the couple.
“Yeah, ask them,” Brzezinski said as Scarborough began laughing. “Because you know what the numbers will change. And at this point, I don’t even … I’d be careful.”
Scarborough then asked co-host Willie Geist if he should call his friends, or “let Mika ask my friends in that tone?”
“Mika calls the restaurant, you call the friends,” Geist said. “Let’s just do it that way.”
After Scarborough suggested that he would pick up the phone and be “a little polite,” Brzezinski then said “I’m done with being polite.”
“I actually would like people in this country to stay alive,” she said. “Unlike some of your friends and Republicans in the Senate and in the House. And President Trump, whose presidency is killing people by the tens of thousands.”
More than 14 million Americans have contracted the virus since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 276,000 have died.
Cases are now spiking again, and public health officials have warned of a dire winter. States and cities are beginning to introduce new restrictions to try to prevent the spread.
The two “Morning Joe” hosts have regularly criticized President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, including that he has downplayed the virus and criticized restrictions while mocking people who wear masks.