Mika Brzezinski Reflects on Backlash After Her and Husband Joe Scarborough's Meeting With Donald Trump: 'People Are Really Scared'

Mika Brzezinski has elaborated on her decision to visit Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago alongside husband Joe Scarborough shortly after the 2024 presidential election.

Both Brzezinski and Scarborough have strongly criticized the 78-year-old president-elect, leading some to believe their visit was "opportunistic," that they met with the soon-to-be POTUS out of fear of retribution or that they were just plain hypocritical.

"In these fraught times, I do think that we are in an environment, no matter how it started, where everyone’s talking at each other," she said during a recent sit-down with Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee. "I do believe, and this doesn’t just apply to Donald Trump, it applies to anybody in his administration, any Republican, that it’s time to start talking face-to-face on the record, on background, reconnecting."

"It doesn’t have to be easy. It doesn’t have to be fun. It’s not supposed to be," Brzezinski explained. "So for us, it absolutely felt like the right thing to do because it is our job."

Brzezinski noted she's heard from people "who are really powerful" that she respects a "great deal" since their Mar-a-Lago visit who all agreed it was the "right thing to do." However, she got the opposite impression from people online and others in the media.

"I’ve been surprised at the backlash. And the way I look at it is people are really scared," she shared. "It’s one of the reasons we went in there is people are really scared about Donald Trump’s comments that, you know, political adversaries, a lot of people are scared because of what has happened with abortion… These are all issues that are important to me and in some ways personal to me, but definitely personal to the people I really care about."

Brzezinski reiterated it is her job to talk with people who she disagrees with, feels threatened by or have hurt her feelings in the past.

"I mean, do I really not go in there because he tweeted about me bleeding badly from the facelift at Mar-a-Lago, I don’t know, eight, nine years ago?" she asked. "I’m worried about myself and how I conduct myself in this media universe that we’re in, taking stock of everything that has happened. I don’t regret anything I’ve said during the campaign, and I stand by it. But I’m also looking at how to do things differently."

In conclusion, she said she would "never turn down an opportunity to gain insider information" as a journalist, and she chooses not to worry about "mean tweets" or other "personal stuff."