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Joe Scarborough seems to be in the midst of a mental breakdown. Facing falling ratings and immense criticism from his far-left fanbase over his post-election meeting in November with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the “Morning Joe” host lashed out at his audience in an attempt to explain his position. 

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Sitting next to Mika Brzezinski, a clearly annoyed Scarborough shouted at the camera, claiming that he wasn’t befriending Trump but was trying to get the “read of the man” as a supposed “journalist.” I’m not sure how much sense that makes given he’s known the incoming president for decades. How much more of a “read” would he need to garner? I think everyone pretty much knows who Trump is these days. 

Still, he kept ranting, occasionally backed up by Brzezinski, at which point Scarborough would repeat what she said as if he were being fed lines. 

Note: I’m going to forgo exclamation points in the excerpt because he’s just yelling the entire time.

SCARBOROUGH: Two things, you can do two things at the same time. You can say that he had fascist rhetoric and still go in and talk to him. 

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah

SCARBOROUGH: You know why I do that? To get the read of the man. You know why I went in and talked to Macron? To get the read of the man in a crucial time in EU funding and NATO funding. Do you know why I went to leaders in the Middle East who were angry at the United States, and I sat there, and I listened to them attacking me personally for 45 minutes because of US policy, do you know why I do that? To get the read of the leader. To get the read of where the country is going so I can back here and talk to you and let you know what the hell is going on. 

BRZEZINSKI: Context and insights…

SCARBOROUGH: And give you context, insight, and background. You know everybody we have on this show that’s a reporter? It’s what they do every day. They speak on background.

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To provide further context, that blow-up at the audience occurred in the shadow of a 40 percent drop in viewership for “Morning Joe,” representing a massive slide in earnings potential for the show. That’s no doubt at the heart of Scarborough’s anger. He wouldn’t be screaming on television if he wasn’t feeling some financial pressure.

SEE: MSNBC Gets Bad News on Ratings 

Is he telling the truth, though? Did he really go visit with Trump on a hardened journalistic mission in order to get a “read of the man?” I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest the answer is no. For starters, Joe Scarborough is definitely not a journalist by any objective definition. He’s a partisan talking head. A political operative turned commentator who wouldn’t know real journalism if it smacked him in the face.

Secondly, as I noted above, Scarborough has known Trump for decades. There is no great mystery about who the incoming president is or how he will govern. There was no “read” to be garnered. That means Scarborough and Brzezinski probably went to Mar-a-Lago for far more selfish reasons, i.e. they wanted to try to rekindle a relationship to help boost their access for the next four years. 

I mean, come on, who are they kidding? These people called Trump a “Hitlerian figure.” They weren’t confused as to who he was post-election. This is all a game and a pathetic one at that. 

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Will Scarborough’s meltdown help his ratings? I tend to think not. This is what happens when you feed your audience tales of fascism and gulags for eight years. “Morning Joe” built this monster, and now Frankenstein is turning around to eat him. That’s both hilarious and well-deserved.