Harry Shearer's Le Show got its hands on the between-the-breaks conversations between MSNBC Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski and presidential candidate (sigh) Donald Trump, during their unusual "town hall" with Trump last week. The audio won't exactly dismiss concerns that the pair have a too-cozy relationship with Trump.
On the polls looking good for Trump:
SCARBOROUGH: The Bloomberg poll, all the polls look great in South Carolina. All of them.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. [...]
TRUMP: Are [the negative ads] catching on at all? SCARBOROUGH: No. Doesn't look that way.
TRUMP: What do you think, are they catching on? BRZEZINSKI: No. [...]
On which clips they played from a Trump rally during Morning Joe:
TRUMP: I saw it, I watched your show this morning. You had me almost as a legendary figure, I like that.
On how Donald Trump did in the debate:
SCARBOROUGH: What we basically said today was, we were completely wrong about the debate.
BRZEZINSKI: Totally. [...] I thought your head was gonna explode!
SCARBOROUGH: We were wrong.
TRUMP: Oh no, no, I thought I did great. [...]
BRZEZINSKI: The next morning, when I saw the CBS poll, I knew, I knew that the people that mattered didn't think you lost it. I mean, you came in a strong second. And I'll tell you what was the most revealing thing was Bush came in last. The guy you fought came in last. [...]
On the questions they'll be asking Trump:
BRZEZINSKI: [to unknown producer] Do you not want me to do, um, the ones with, umm, deportation?
SCARBOROUGH: We really have to go to some questions.
TRUMP: That's right. Nothing, nothing too hard, Mika.
On Trump's chances in South Carolina:
TRUMP: So what are the chances that something bad could happen on Saturday for me? There's always a chance, right?
SCARBOROUGH: [...] It's like I said before Iowa. I said, I can't tell you Trump's ahead. I can't tell if he's gonna win or not because, but it's a caucus state. In primary states, look how close New Hampshire was. The polls were almost identical. You can take a mix of these polls and you can just overlay it. [...] But you're so far up in Nevada, according to this latest poll. [...]
On Trump critics that have been softening their stance:
SCARBOROUGH: Cilizza has completely changed—One thing Ron [Fournier] started doing three months ago? He went home. He's from Michigan. And he got an earful when he went home. And so he changed things. And what he said was, I'm no longer going to attack the people who support Trump. [...] He said, I understand, understand more.
Just a bit of friendly banter and pundit-to-candidate advice between breaks. Nothing that Ed Murrow wouldn’t do.