Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski—the will-they-won’t-they couple of cable news political chatter—have announced that they are engaged. The longtime co-hosts, who have been famously cagey about their personal relationship, initially shared the news in an interview with Vanity Fair, but most of their viewing audience likely found out this morning, when their guests offered them congratulations on air and everything got visibly uncomfortable.
Confirming rumors that initially swirled in Page Six, Scarborough and Brzezinski explained to VF that Scarborough had proposed like any fancy person would—by taking Brzezinski on a trip to the French Riviera. It’s ostensibly a happy and romantic story, yet when Harold Ford Jr. offered them a vague “congratulations” on Morning Joe this morning, you could feel the room tense up.
“Oh, thank you,” Brzezinski responded, clearly wanting to move on. Willie Geist then proceeded to jump in, attempting to reframe those well wishes to be about the show’s ratings, though he also added, “It’s like we’re a family.” Sure, dude. You can watch the whole embarrassing exchange below:
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Speaking of embarrassing, the couple also told Vanity Fair that, shortly after the Inauguration, they’d dined at the White House, where both Jared Kushner and Donald Trump himself offered to officiate their wedding, suggesting they could even hold it at the White House or Mar-a-Lago. But Brzezinski, the daughter of Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, emphatically said that won’t happen: ”The White House that I grew up in was an amazing place. If it weren’t Trump, it might be something to think about. The mental picture is just fascinating, but the reality is just . . . no. No, no, no, no, no.”