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Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist addressed the elephant in the room when they took to the air Tuesday (July 16) morning after the broadcast was canceled in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
According to a report from CNN, MSNBC opted to roll breaking news coverage of the developing story on Monday instead of the daily Morning Joe broadcast. But one source familiar with the matter claimed the network wanted to “avoid a scenario in which one of the show’s stable of two dozen-plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and network as a whole.”
On Tuesday, Scarborough and his co-hosts addressed the audience frankly, prefacing their explanation by saying, “We’ve talked about it off the air, we’ll talk about it on the air, because we talk about everything on the air.”
Scarborough explained, “We were told in no uncertain terms on Sunday evening that there was going to be one news feed across all NBC news channels yesterday… that was going to be one news feed across all NBC news channels, that we were going to stay as a network in breaking news mode throughout all day yesterday, that did not happen.”
He added that the Morning Joe team was “not given a good answer as to why that didn’t happen,” but he presumed it had something to do with the public’s reaction.
![Joe Scarborough, co-hosts Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist](https://decider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Joe-Scarborough-co-hosts-Mika-Brzezinski-and-Willie-Geist.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=300 300w, https://decider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Joe-Scarborough-co-hosts-Mika-Brzezinski-and-Willie-Geist.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=640 640w, https://decider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Joe-Scarborough-co-hosts-Mika-Brzezinski-and-Willie-Geist.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1280 1280w, https://decider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Joe-Scarborough-co-hosts-Mika-Brzezinski-and-Willie-Geist.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=885 885w, https://decider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Joe-Scarborough-co-hosts-Mika-Brzezinski-and-Willie-Geist.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1284 1284w)
“We were also told it was going to happen throughout the day, and I guess, after there was such a strong blowback about yesterday morning, I guess they changed their plans,” he said. “We were very surprised, we were very disappointed.”
Geist added that he was “obviously suited up and ready to go for yesterday morning” when they got the news.
“So we are here today, going through a lot, catching up a little bit, but we want to be here for our audience, and we know you trust us, and we have ultimate respect for you guys,” he said. “So we are here today. I wish we’d been here yesterday.”
Brzezinski echoed a similar sentiment, noting that the show is known for “being the place where you can go to have the hard conversations in a civil way.”
Scarborough previously condemned the assassination attempt in a statement on social media, writing on Sunday (July 14), “Political violence has scarred America’s landscape from JFK through January 6th. Republican and Democratic politicians alike have been victims and this violence has caused incalculable harm to America. Thank God President Trump is safe.”
His statement continued, “Our family is praying this morning for President Trump, those injured yesterday, and for the loved ones of the American tragically killed. May God grant mercy on them and deliver us from the violent political rhetoric.”
Morning Joe airs weekdays at 6/5c a.m. on MSNBC.