Well, that didn't take long for her to get her mind right. It only took a few hours from the time Mika Brzezinksi on Friday's Morning Joe criticized the sexual harassment accusers of Mark Halperin for not meeting with him personally to apologizing for it later that afternoon. Seeing your own career starting to slip away can be a powerful incentive for producing an apology.
Mika's dramatic U-turn concerning former colleague Halperin was a result of this statement: "Mark Halperin is more than willing to meet with his accusers and apologize with them face-to-face. I've actually tried to offer him to them. They don’t want to talk to him." That definitely did not go down well with his accusers and by yesterday afternoon, the Hollywood Reporter reported that 'Morning Joe' Host Mika Brzezinski Apologizes for Chastising Mark Halperin Accusers:
MSNBC's Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski apologized for comments she made during Friday morning's show regarding recently ousted MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin, following sexual harassment allegations several women have made against him.
...Brzezinski quickly received backlash for her on-air comments, as 10 women accusing Halperin of sexual harassment issued a statement, saying, "We would ask Ms. Brzezinski for higher standards of editorial judgment, compassion and human decency."
Here is the statement from those women which was tweeted by Paul Farhi of the Washington Post:
Just got this: Ten women who have accused Mark Halperin of sexual misconduct send statement to @msnbc rebutting @morningmika’s comments this morning about Halperin: pic.twitter.com/wgDStvilwM
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) December 22, 2017
At that point poor Mika must have noticed that the life support systems on her career were shutting down thus resulting in this conveniently quick reversal:
"We have been trying our best on Morning Joe to have an honest conversation about sexual harassment and sexual assault. The issue has hit close to home given that Mark Halperin was on our show. I have spent a lot of time talking to some of his accusers and to Mark himself. Often I bring up the issue on our show because I think it would be less than genuine to talk about the growing number of cases without recognizing that a former member of our team acted very badly.
In our discussion about sexual harassment this morning, I said some things that hurt people. In the case of Mark, my goal today was to start a conversation about hearing from the men whenever we can, but I realize that it is not my place. It isn’t my call to make, and for that I am truly sorry. As a victim of sexual assault, I understand that each individual's case is different. This is up to the victims, some of whom I've been in contact with. My hope is for all of us to come together to support the brave women who speak out and help make workplaces safer as we continue this difficult conversation in the months and years ahead."
So if Mika had to apologize doesn't her co-host, Joe Scarborough, also have to do the same? Let us review his reaction to her statement on Friday morning:
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: If we just want to strike people down for political motivation or for anger, we're not going to get anywhere. I know I just said something incredibly, what's the word, explosive.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Truthful?
BRZEZINSKI: But...
SCARBOROUGH: Truthful?
Yeah, it definitely sounds like Joe is another candidate for getting his mind right.
