‘Morning Joe’ Host Joe Scarborough Tells Viewers He Was “Surprised” And “Disappointed” That Network Preempted Monday’s Show

deadline.com:

Joe Scarborough, the namesake host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, addressed the network’s decision to pull Monday’s show from the air and instead run an NBC News/NBC News Now newsfeed that covered the aftermath of the assassination attempt on the life of Donald Trump. “We were told, in no uncertain terms on Sunday evening, that there was going to be one news feed across all NBC channels yesterday,” Scarborough said, adding that it meant that “we were going to stay in breaking news mode throughout all day yesterday.

That did not happen. We don’t know why that didn’t happen. Our team was not given a good answer as to why that didn’t happen.” MSNBC returned to its regular program lineup by the afternoon, with Nicolle Wallace hosting her show at 4 p.m.

ET. CNN’s Oliver Darcy, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that the MSNBC decision was made out of concern a guest “might make an inappropriate comment” that would create a larger backlash against the show and network in the aftermath of the Trump assassination attempt.

But an MSNBC spokesperson denied that characterization, noting that the network has been in breaking news coverage ever since the Trump rally shooting.