-Hi, Mika. Hi, Joe.
-Hey. -Welcome. Welcome back.
I haven't seen you in-studio in a while.
-It's been a long time. -It's been a long time.
-It's been a long time.
-Yeah, well, congrats on everything.
Earlier today, you launched a fourth --
the fourth hour of "Morning Joe."
-Look what she brought out. -Just in case.
-Did you bring your phone? -Yeah, I did.
-That's one of my favorite -- -Do you want to take it away?
-No, I want you to get a buzz first because that's
what I watch every -- I watch you every morning.
And every now and then, you get, like, a buzz
on your phone, and I can see that it drives you crazy.
And you're like -- -He gets so mad.
-He's like, "Mika, can you just put your phone somewhere?"
And you're like, "No, but I'm getting a link.
I'm giving it to the producer." -My brothers, whoever.
-Yes, exactly. People are just texting you...
-Exactly. -...links to important things...
-Contacts. -...and Joe is stopping you
from delivering the news. -Exactly.
-Exactly. -He's getting in the way.
-So I'm getting your back. -Important things.
-Thank you. -Important things.
-Not even close. -No, exactly.
What made you want to add a fourth hour to "Morning Joe"?
-Well, as you can see, three hours,
there's not enough time in the day for him and talking.
-Yeah. -So, why not four?
-Yeah. -Why not five?
-Why not five? You are really good at it, though.
-Well, that's very nice of you to say.
-He's amazing. -You're both great.
-Speaking of good at something --
Questlove's not here. -Oh, my God.
-Man. -No, but Questlove, yeah.
We told him to stay in L.A....
-"Summer of Soul" is mind-blowing.
-...'cause he just won a Grammy. -It's unbelievable.
-He won an Oscar last week, and he won a Grammy last night.
I'm like, "Take the week, buddy."
-Amazing. -Amazing.
-Is that not one of the most mind-blowing --
It's not even a music documentary.
It's music, it's pop culture, it's race, it's everything.
Politics. -He did such a fantastic job.
Did you have any idea the show would be such a hit?
It's 15 years now. -I did.
-I didn't, but she did.
I was just trying to, like, hold the job down.
-10 seconds in. 10 seconds in, I looked at him,
and I said, "I need to talk to you in the break."
And I brought them both -- Joe and Willie, to me,
and I said, "This is going to be amazing.
This is going to be the buzziest political talk show.
You are going to be incredible. -You believe that?
-You're going to be the voice of politics on the landscape.
And Willie, you're such a star,
you're gonna have your own network show."
-No way. -She actually said that.
And I swear to God, I was on a week-to-week contract.
They kept trying to fire me. [ Laughter ]
They'd like -- They'd get the bag over my head
and start escorting me out the front door.
-I mean, did they really? -Yes.
-No, I swear to God. They wanted to fire me so badly.
-Hated him. Hated him. -Hated my guts.
And Mika -- -"Scarborough Country."
-Really? -No passport required,
only common sense allowed, baby. But anyway.
So, the show starts, and five minutes in, she said,
"You know, this is gonna work." -How about you?
Did you think you were gonna be a hit?
-No. I am, like, a month away from turning 55.
I had no idea.
I really thought my days were numbered.
-Really? -Yes.
-Look at what you've been doing.
Every single morning, you guys are trending on Twitter.
Like, the top-five trending tweets.
-Yeah, it's not a good thing.
-That's never a good thing, though.
-Oh, it is a good thing. -Is that a good thing?
-When I see that, I get very nervous.
-Oh, no, it's positive. As far as Twitter goes.
-Sometimes some tweets can be a little nasty.
-Yeah, maybe it's not. I don't know.
But I know that it is, according to the ones I see.
-Yeah. -People -- they look to you.
They want to have the conversation.
We need someone to look at to tell us the news
and to talk about it, and you guys are doing it.
And you're taking it to another thing.
You're doing -- What is "50 over 50"?
-Oh! That's my partnership with "Forbes" and my platform,
Know Your Value, and it actually celebrates
women over 50 who are achieving great impact in their careers.
We had our first list last year, and 10,000 submissions came in.
We went global. -Good for you.
-We had an event in Abu Dhabi, and now submissions are open
for the next U.S. "50 over 50" list.
So, women can nominate themselves
right now at forbes.com.
-That's fantastic that you're doing that.
I think it's awesome. [ Applause ]
There's no --
There's no shortage of news for you guys to cover
on "Morning Joe." I think, right now, Ukraine,
I guess, is the story on everyone's minds.
How are you dealing with that,
and how do you stay optimistic, I guess?
-Well, you know, the news can be very grim.
There are positive things to look at, though.
You look at what the Ukrainians have done,
it's nothing short of extraordinary.
I can't think -- You know, we grew up --
You know, I grew up reading history.
-Yeah. -Grew up, you know,
reading about Winston Churchill, about Britain,
like, standing alone against Nazism.
And you sit there, and you see this guy --
Like, I don't know if you've seen any of him on Netflix,
but this guy who was an actor on a Ukrainian show.
-He's funny. -Yeah.
-He played a president. -Played a president.
-It's amazing. -And nobody would have ever
expected that this guy would actually be
the defender of democracy in Europe.
We've not seen anything like this.
And the -- You know, we always see --
I don't know about you, but my boys and I will --
you know, we love "Star Wars," and we love "Lord of the --"
and we watch all of these things.
You're sitting there going, "Yeah, you know, it never really
works that way in real life where the underdog can --"
-A movie. -There's no --
You look at this, and you're like,
they're the resistance. Of course, it's real life
and real horrors, but the fact that the Ukrainians,
who Putin doesn't even see as a country or a people...
-A blip on the ra-- yeah. -...they have just decimated
outside of Kyiv, decimated, like, one of the most feared
armies on the planet.
Who would have believed, six months ago,
that we would look to Ukraine and go, "My God,
these people have reminded us what freedom's about."
It's not all the stupid things
that we've been fighting about in America.
You know, "I didn't get a pickle on my hamburger.
You're infringing on my freedoms."
"I have to wear a mask." Like, whatever.
Your opin-- No. We see it day in and day out.
The Ukrainians are fighting for their freedom.
They're fighting for their lives.
-In a divided country, this is what we're uniting over,
which I think is kind of beautiful to see.
-Well, you're seeing Republicans and Dem --
I talked to somebody really high up at the White House last week.
They said "Republicans, Democrats came together.
We sat, we had a conversation for 30 minutes,
and it was like humans talking to each other.
It was amazing!" -"Is that possible?
Yeah. We can do it, guys.
We can talk to each other. It's very possible."
-Yes. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you to you guys. Thank you for coming on.
Thanks for everything you do every single morning.
Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski.
Watch "Morning Joe" weekdays on MSNBC, fourth hour.