MSNBC host Joe Scarborough offered rare praise to former President Donald Trump for not being afraid to talk to liberal media during a Friday panel.
Scarborough criticized politicians for being afraid of the media and denying their offers to speak to journalists or come on “Morning Joe.” He said Trump and Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham were the only conservatives to respond and speak to “Morning Joe” anchors during the 2016 election season.
“All of these people have always been afraid,” Scarborough said. “Not just of our show, but of the media. Now let me bring up Donald Trump. Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham were the only two people that took us up on our offer. And they called. And Lindsey only called a couple times but Donald Trump called nonstop. ‘I’m here, I’m there…’ and it made a lot of people angry and they’re always calling the campaigns and I would say ‘come on this show.”
“Talk, you don’t like what he said, we don’t like what he said,” he continued. “Come on, Jeb, tell us why it doesn’t work or if not Jeb, talking Jeb’s people, or John Podesta, come on John. What are you guys afraid of? And it didn’t work for them, and it’s not working for Ron DeSantis either. This is a very long way of saying you know, you hate Donald Trump, you hate that he was on the show a lot. Well, he was on the show a lot because he wasn’t scared of his shadow, and it made a difference.” (RELATED: Joe Scarborough: Trump Would Kill Journalists Like Putin ‘If He Could Get Away With It’)
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The panel discussed Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is reportedly weighing a shift in media strategy by potentially starting to appear for interviews with corporate media outlets, according to ABC News. He has currently refrained from talking to CNN, MSNBC, and other liberal outlets, but has communicated with conservative media.