Media

‘Morning Joe’ hosts congratulate Buzzfeed editor for being sued by Trump lawyer

Getty Images

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Wednesday congratulated Buzzfeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith for being sued by President Trump’s lawyer.

The lawsuit stems from the now infamous Russian dossier that includes a number of unverified allegations linking the president to Russia.

BuzzFeed published the document in January 2017 and it included allegations of collusion with the Russians against Trump and his personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

{mosads}

“By the way, we need to congratulate Ben Smith,” said Scarborough, who left the Republican Party after more than two decades last year.

“Oh, yes,” replied co-host Mika Brzezinski.

“When he walked on the set I heard everybody congratulating Ben Smith for being sued by the president of the United States. Good on you, son. That’s — that’s good, good, good stuff,” noted Scarborough.

Smith, 42, was signed as an MSNBC contributor last year to serve on its media team.

“By his personal lawyer, but thank you,” corrected Brzezinski to laughter by those on the set.

“It’s still okay. You’re a winner, too. My Lord,” she added.

Scarborough and Brzezinski, once accused of being too friendly with candidate Trump, have become a pair of the president’s staunchest critics.

Trump has not appeared on the morning program or any MSNBC offering since May 2016.

Fusion GPS, the political research firm behind the dossier, was also named in Cohen’s lawsuit.

“It will be proven that I had no involvement in this Russian collusion conspiracy,” Cohen told Bloomberg. “My name was included only because of my proximity to the president.”

In addition to Smith, editors Miriam Elder and Mark Schoofs and reporter Ken Bensinger are named in the suit.

Smith wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times that he was “proud” they published the dossier, which was met by criticism from Trump and some members of the media.

“You just published fake news,” Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press” said to Smith on his program shortly after the dossier’s publication.

Tags BuzzFeed Donald Trump Joe Scarborough Lawsuit Mika Brzezinski Morning Joe MSNBC Russia Steele dossier

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

See all Hill.TV See all Video

Most Popular

Load more

Video

See all Video