MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough told his audience to “mark it down” on Friday that President Donald Trump will be “crushed” by the media unless his administration changes its behavior.
Mr. Scarborough and a panel of “Morning Joe” guests used a New York Times interview with chief White House strategist Stephen Bannon to predict the political demise of Mr. Trump. The host said that Mr. Bannon’s decision to call media “the opposition party” was a “short-sided” recipe for disaster.
“This will end very, very badly,” Mr. Scarborough said, Mediaite reported. “Mark it down. It’s 6:27. This is what we did when we predicted Donald Trump would win the nomination. Well, here, let me do it this way. It goes the other way, too. […] Let me say, taking on the press like that — it always ends badly. The press always wins. Washington always wins. You figure out how to work with them or you’re going to get crushed.”
The host added that Mr. Trump’s victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came because she is “the only politician in America less trusted than Donald Trump.”
Mr. Bannon’s Times interview on Thursday suggests that he and Mr. Trump are unlikely to change the strategy that propelled them through the Republican Party primary and ultimately into the White House.
“I want you to quote this,” Mr. Bannon told the newspaper. “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States. […] The elite media got it dead wrong, 100 percent dead wrong.”
Mr Bannon added that mainstream media outlets have not “fired or terminated” any reporters, despite partisan comments made on social media.
“Look at the Twitter feeds of those people: They were outright activists of the Clinton campaign,” Mr. Bannon said.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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