Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe, have accused White House staff members of attempting to blackmail them over a negative tabloid story. The couple, who are engaged, claimed that senior administration officials warned them about an unflattering article in the National Enquirer and suggested that President Donald Trump could arrange for it to be suppressed if they apologised for critical coverage of his administration.
Speaking on their show on Friday, Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, said he received calls from three top White House staffers urging him to contact the president. 'They said: 'If you call the president up and you apologise for your coverage, then he will pick up the phone and basically spike the story,'' he claimed. Brzezinski added that her teenage daughters were harassed with frequent phone calls as part of the tabloid's reporting.
The allegations come after Trump launched a crude Twitter attack on Brzezinski on Thursday, calling her 'crazy' and claiming she was 'bleeding badly from a facelift' when he saw her at his Florida estate. The hosts said Trump lied about the facelift, though Brzezinski admitted she had 'a little skin under her chin tweaked'. In a joint column for the Washington Post, they noted a change in Trump's behaviour over recent years but said they were neither shocked nor insulted by his latest outburst.
Trump responded on Friday, tweeting that Scarborough had called him to stop the article. 'He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show,' the president wrote. The Enquirer released a statement denying any threats or involvement in discussions between the White House and the hosts, while the New York County District Attorney's office declined to comment on potential investigations.
The incident has drawn bipartisan condemnation and revived concerns about Trump's treatment of women and his approach to media. Scarborough and Brzezinski, who once had a close relationship with Trump before turning against him during his campaign, described the president's 'unhealthy obsession' with their programme as damaging to his mental health and the country.
