Joe Scarborough, who hosts the MSNBC show Morning Joe, has hit back at former president Donald Trump for taunting him and questioning whether the show would be cancelled.
Trump issued a statement on Monday morning, reading: "Will Morning Joe be canceled? He and Mika's ratings are very low—they are having an extremely hard time finding an audience to listen to the Fake News they spurn. Losing them would be very sad—hope it doesn't happen!"
In response, the MSNBC host mocked Trump's choice of words.
"I never heard him talk about spurn, using that as a word," Scarborough said on his show on Monday. "I don't use the word, it's new vocabulary!"
Then, turning to civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton, who was being interviewed on the show on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he said: "Secondly, he can't quit us!"
"Even says that would be a shame, that would be a shame, with Morning Joe," Scarborough added.
"Well thank you Mr president, we appreciate that, we've been talking football for two hours, I'm surprised... he likes football, Rev you'd think, he likes boxing. You think maybe he'd write a little about our commentary on the Cowboys game or I don't know, perhaps talk about MLK Day."
Sharpton then replied: "I think you got him a little upset when we talked about his [Florida Governor Ron] DeSantis gaining some traction and he may be threatened. You can't imply that he may be a 'has been' and I think because of that all of a sudden your ratings are not there you have no audience, it's an indication that you have an audience of one Donald Trump."
Despite Trump being still the overwhelming favourite to win the GOP candidacy for the 2024 national election, DeSantis has been closing the gap in polls regarding who should be the next Republican presidential candidate.
In his Monday statement, Trump also took a shot at Joy Reid, who hosts The ReidOut on the same channel as Scarborough, featuring interviews with politicians and newsmakers.
"On another front, looks like Unjoy Reid, the racist commentator on MSDNC, is toast," Trump said. "Her stupidity is only surpassed by her absolute lack of television persona. She never had it, and never will. The only thing she's good at is spewing racist hate but obviously, no one is listening!"
Trump has a history of attacking both Scarborough and Reid.
In October 2020 when he was still president, Trump said Reid had "NO talent, and truly doesn't have the 'it' factor needed for success in showbiz."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Jack Dutton is a Newsweek Reporter based in Cape Town, South Africa. His focus is reporting on global politics and ... Read more
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