Mika Brzezinski is not appearing on Morning Joe Thursday — she’s taking a pre-planned day off. 
 
 Co-host Joe Scarborough opened the show by saying “Mika has the day off with her family, a long-planned family event.” 
 
 The Morning Joe host’s absence comes the day after she landed in hot water for calling Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a “wannabe dictator’s butt-boy” for his comments defending the U.S. response to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. 
 
 Brzezinski said of Pompeo on Morning Joe Wednesday: “Are the pathetic deflections that we just heard when he appeared on Fox & Friends — is that a patriot speaking? Or a wannabe dictator’s butt-boy? I’m dead serious, I’m asking: are these the words of a patriot?” 
 
 The use of a homophobic slur to refer to Pompeo was met with a widespread backlash, and Brzezinski quickly issued an apology via tweet. 
 
 “SUPER BAD choice of words,” she wrote. “SO SORRY!” 
 
 Totally agree with you -SUPER BAD choice of words .. I should have said “water boy”… like for football teams or something like that.. apologize to @SenatorDurbin too! SO SORRY! https://t.co/zIqsGdK3Tk — Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) December 12, 2018 
 
 Sen. Dick Durbin was on Morning Joe Wednesday. 
 
 Her comment was condemned by everyone from NPR’s media reporter David Folkenflik to U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grennell. 
 
 This is bad. Will require more from Brzezinski than a Twitterpology. https://t.co/GoTKn23wrl — David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) December 12, 2018 
 
 Watch the video above, courtesy of MSNBC. 
 
 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| Apology from Morning Joe co-host comes after remarks were widely criticized as homophobic 
 
 Mika Brzezinski, co-host of Morning Joe, has swiftly apologized for remarks she made on her MSNBC program directed at the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, that were widely criticized as homophobic. 
 
 Brzezinski was commenting on an interview Pompeo had given to Fox & Friends in which he said the CIA’s conclusion that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had ordered the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi were inaccurate. 
 
 “Why doesn’t Mike Pompeo care right now?” she asked. “Are the pathetic deflections that we just heard when he appeared on Fox and Friends … is that a patriot speaking, or a wannabe dictator’s butt boy?” she asked. 
 
 The network seemingly attempted to bleep out her comment, often used as a derogatory term for homosexual men, but was unsuccessful in doing so. 
 
 The comments were derided on social media from both the left and the right. 
 
 G.E. Anderson (@g_e_anderson) .@morningmika just asked if Mike Pompeo is a “wannabe dictator’s butt boy,” as homophobic a term as I’ve heard on national morning television. @MSNBC tried and failed to censor it, and did not transcribe her remark in the closed captioning. #journalism pic.twitter.com/3zK7H8evjh 
 
 “So sad that Mika Brzezinski’s work for women’s advocacy has been sullied by her awful, homophobic slur,” wrote one critic on Twitter. “The #LGBTQ community deserves the same advocacy, respect & empowerment as any disenfranchised gender, minority or group. This hate speech has hurt women’s & #LGBTQ causes.” 
 
 “I was with you, @morningmika, right up to the ‘butt boy’ comment,” added another. “Try ‘toadie’ or ‘lackey’ or ‘stool pigeon’ or ‘ass kisser,’ or ‘traitor,’ but maybe don’t equate homosexuality with Mike Pompeo carrying water for the murderous regime in Saudi Arabia.” 
 
 “This is disgusting!,” tweeted Donald Trump Jr. “How can @KevinHart4real essentially be forced to lose his Oscar’s gig for comments he made years ago as a comedian, but Mika can make a seriously homophobic slur on a major news station, have the network try to cover it up & its not an issue? Give me a break!” 
 
 Brzezinski quickly admitted fault. 
 
 “Totally agree with you – SUPER BAD choice of words,” she wrote. “I should have said ‘water boy’… like for football teams or something like that..apologize to @SenatorDurbin too! SO SORRY!” 
 
 John Levenstein (@johnlevenstein) Someone at SNL has got to stand up and say it's not funny to suggest Trump and Putin are lovers. It's stupid and homophobic and I can't find the joke. And for those who think it's hilarious, you did it, you enjoyed it. Let's get it together, guys. https://t.co/6NfGzqcSmo 
 
 The controversy echoes the reaction to a recurring joke on NBC’s Saturday Night Live in which the relationship between the Saudi crown prince, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump was framed as a romantic one that took on a homoerotic context. It also follows the recent announcement that comedian Kevin Hart would no longer be hosting the Academy Awards after past homophobic jokes of his own were uncovered. ||||| Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough slammed President Donald Trump Friday morning as they returned to the air after he personally attacked the Morning Joe hosts in a pair of tweets on Thursday. 
 
 “Unfortunately, we’ve learned what we’ve always learned. He for some reason takes things very personally with women. He’s so much worse with women,” Scarborough said. 
 
 He added: “He attacks women.” 
 
 Brzezinski, whom Trump called “low-IQ, crazy” in a tweet and claimed she was “bleeding from a face-lift” when he last saw her, assured viewers that she has not taken the attacks to heart – but she’s concerned about the state of the nation. 
 
 “I’m fine. My family brought me up really tough,” said the host, who is the daughter of renowned diplomat Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served two presidents. 
 
 “He has a fixation. Its does worry me about the country. He appears to have a fragile, impetuous, childlike ego that he can’t take it,” she added. 
 
 “It is unbelievably alarming that this president is so easily played. He is so easily played by a cable news host. 
 
 After their on-air comments Friday morning, Trump took to Twitter once again to attack the show — and lob an attack at Scarborough. 
 
 “Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show,” he wrote. 
 
 Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017 
 
 PEOPLE previously confirmed the engaged couple delayed their July 4th holiday vacation in order to address the president’s tweets on-air. 
 
 Trump, 71, took to Twitter early Thursday morning with a series of insults aimed at Brzezinski, 50, and Scarborough, 54. 
 
 “I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me,” Trump wrote. “She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!” 
 
 I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came.. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017 
 
 …to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017 
 
 Brzezinski was quick to respond to Trump’s tweets on Thursday. The mother of two shared a photo of a Cheerios box with the headline “Made for Little Hands.” 
 
 She opened up about the Mar-a-Lago meetings on Friday, revealing that she and Scarborough didn’t want to go to the Palm Beach estate but “Donald kept calling Joe.” 
 
 After initially meeting with Scarborough, Trump allegedly insisted on Brzezinski visiting Mar-a-Lago as well — “For some reason he was more interested in Mika being there than me,” Scarborough said. 
 
 RELATED VIDEO: Natasha Stoynoff Breaks Silence, Accuses Donald Trump of Sexual Attack 
 
 The couple went together the next night and Brzezinski said they spoke with Melania and Trump for just 20 minutes before leaving. 
 
 “Speaking of my face … I had my chin tweaked,” Brzezinski said, responding to Trumps face-lift claims. “I’m pretty transparent about what I do and I think it looks great. 
 
 Many were upset by Trump’s tweets, including politicians. But some of the most biting comments came from fellow Republicans who condemned the president’s morning rant. 
 
 Brzezinski and Scarborough initially responded to the attack in a Washington Post opinion piece. In the article, they opened up about their past experiences with the embattled president, including a National Enquirer article he allegedly threatened to use to cast the pair in a negative light. 
 
 The political commentators alleged that “top White House staff members” told them that the publication was planning to write a negative story about them unless they “begged” Trump to have it spiked. 
 
 “Let me explain what they were threatening,” Brzezinski said on Friday, referring to National Enquirer officials. “They were calling my children. They were calling close friends and they were pinning the story on my ex-husband [Jim Hoffer] … I knew immediately that it was a lie and that they had nothing.” 
 
 Good time to remind you that @MorningMika is smart as hell, stronger than any critic, & a role model for what we hope our daughters can be. — Willie Geist (@WillieGeist) June 29, 2017 
 
 Scarborough said that he received numerous calls from White House officials, begging him to call the president and offer an apology for the morning show’s coverage. 
 
 “The president is friends with the guy who runs the National Enquirer and they said, ‘If you call the president and you apologize for your coverage then he will pick up the phone and basically spike the story,’ ” Scarborough recalled. 
 
 “I’m not gonna do it. The calls kept coming and kept coming and they were like, ‘Call! You need to call! Please call! Come on, Joe. Just pick up the phone and call [Trump].” 
 
 American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, did not immediately respond to request for comment. 
 
 .@morningmika: "It’s been fascinating and frightening and really sad for our country" #morningjoe pic.twitter.com/Ch9fekp905 — Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) June 30, 2017 
 
 This isn’t the first time Trump has called out members of the media or commented on their appearance. 
 
 Earlier this week, the President was criticized by some after singling out Ireland RTE’s U.S. Bureau Chief, Caitriona Perry, during an Oval Office phone call with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. 
 
 “She has a nice smile on her face, so I bet she treats you well,” Trump told Varadkar on the phone after he had called Perry over. 
 
 In addition, Trump has had a long-running feud with Fox News-turned-NBC News anchor Megyn Kelly since the first presidential primary debate, when he said that “she had blood coming out of her wherever” after she grilled him during the debate. ||||| "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Friday morning forcefully responded to President Donald Trump's Twitter attack, saying it was "amazing how many lies he packed into two tweets." 
 
 The pair postponed their vacation to appear live on their MSNBC show in the wake of his Thursday morning tirade that drew outrage from across the political spectrum. They said they received calls and texts from concerned friends and family, but stressed that the president's disparaging remarks aren't really about them. 
 
 "We had so many people saying, 'Hope you're OK.' 'Hope you're OK,'" Scarborough said. "We're OK. The country's not." 
 
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 Brzezinski said: "I think it's been fascinating and frightening and really sad for our country." 
 
 In the tweets, Trump used insulting names against the cable news hosts, but the comment that drew widespread condemnation was his claim that Brzezinski "was bleeding badly from a face-lift" when he saw her on New Year's Eve. 
 
 I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came.. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017 
 
 ...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017 
 
 Scarborough on Friday said the president has an "unhealthy obsession with Mika" and is "much more vicious with women." 
 
 "He appears to have a fragile, impetuous, childlike ego that we’ve seen over and over again, especially with women," Brzezinski added. 
 
 Scarborough and Brzezinski moderate a town hall during the presidential primaries with Trump in Charleston, South Carolina on Feb. 17, 2016. Mark Peterson / Redux for NBC News file 
 
 Before Trump tweeted Thursday morning, Scarborough and Brzezinski were on "Morning Joe" discussing reports that Time magazine had asked the Trump Organization to remove phony covers featuring him from several of his golf clubs. 
 
 "I thought it was hilarious ... I knew in real time that the president would be tweaked by that," Brzezinski said. 
 
 "It is unbelievably alarming that this president is so easily played by a cable news host," she added. 
 
 Trump tweeted a response about two hours after Brzezinski and Scarborough went on air Friday, saying he tuned in to the show, "for first time in long time." 
 
 Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017 
 
 Scarborough then tweeted: "Yet another lie. I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven't spoken with you in many months." 
 
 Scarborough said on the show that the National Enquirer was working on a story about him and Brzezinski, but that the tabloid would "spike" the story if they apologized to the president for their coverage of him. 
 
 "Donald is friends with the guy who runs the National Enquirer," Scarborough said on the show. 
 
 "They were pinning the story on my ex-husband," Brzezinski added. "And I knew he would never do that. So I knew it was a lie and they had nothing." 
 
 National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard responded after the show that a story was reported in early June about Scarborough and Brzezinski's relationship, but that "at no time did we threaten either Joe or Mika or their children in connection with our reporting on the story. We have no knowledge of any discussions between the White House and Joe and Mika about our story, and absolutely no involvement in those discussions.” 
 
 In a Friday op-ed in The Washington Post, Scarborough and Brzezinski said they were concerned that Trump's "unmoored behavior" is going beyond personal attacks. 
 
 "America's leaders and allies are asking themselves yet again whether this man is fit to be president," they wrote. "We have our doubts, but we are both certain that the man is not mentally equipped to continue watching our show, 'Morning Joe.'" 
 
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 Embed Watch Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's full response 32:37 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog 
 
 "The president's unhealthy obsession with our show has been in the public record for months, and we are seldom surprised by his posting nasty tweets about us," Scarborough and Brzezinski wrote, adding that they "believe it would be better for America and the rest of the world if he would keep his 60-inch-plus flat-screen TV tuned to 'Fox & Friends.'" 
 
 The pair said on "Morning Joe" that it was Trump, then-president-elect, who invited them to dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 30. Scarborough said Brzezinski opted not to go, but then she changed her mind after Trump asked Scarborough if she could visit the next day. 
 
 Brzezinski said they had a short meeting with Trump and the first lady that following night before quietly exiting. 
 
 "We were shuffled into a side room — it was actually a bedroom — talked for 20 minutes. We left through this party of people dressed to the nines," she said. 
 
 They also disputed Trump's claim about Brzezinski's face, writing in The Post that "Mika has never had a face-lift." Brzezinski said on "Morning Joe" that she had skin under her chin "tweaked." 
 
 Related: Trump’s Diatribes Against the Press Are Producing a Backlash 
 
 "He takes something small, he tries to weaponize it," Scarborough said. "This has been one of our great frustrations. He just ends up hurting himself." 
 
 Scarborough said he was alarmed when he got a call from a member of Congress who told him that Trump was speaking to about 20 lawmakers on the health care bill when the talk suddenly shifted to the "Morning Joe" hosts. 
 
 The congressman said the president mentioned how Brzezinski had been bleeding from an apparent face-lift and appeared in a rage, according to Scarborough. 
 
 "This congressman said, 'I don't even know why I'm calling you, but I was scared for you guys and wanted you to know,'" Scarborough said. 
 
 MSNBC issued a response Thursday as the comments sparked backlash from both sides of the aisle and reignited Trump's past remarks related to women that have been decried as sexist. 
 
 It’s a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job. — MSNBCPR (@MSNBCPR) June 29, 2017 
 
 When asked about Trump's tweets, House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Thursday: "Obviously I don't see that as an appropriate comment." 
 
 Several members of Trump's own Republican Party tweeted messages denouncing the president's posts. 
 
 This is not okay. As a female in politics I am often criticized for my looks. We should be working to empower women. https://t.co/sV6WDE0EUD — Lynn Jenkins (@RepLynnJenkins) June 29, 2017 
 
 Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America. — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 29, 2017 
 
 Trump was a frequent guest on "Morning Joe" during the start of his 2016 presidential run. But his contentious relationship with the media has only grown since taking office earlier this year. He attacked CNN, The Post and The New York Times on Twitter earlier this week. 
 
 White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to the furor by saying that voters "knew what they were getting when they elected Donald Trump." She said Trump was defending himself against continuing personal attacks from the "liberal media." 
 
 "The president has been attacked mercilessly on personal accounts by members on that program ('Morning Joe'), and I think he's been very clear that when he gets attacked he's going to hit back," Sanders said at a Thursday press briefing. ||||| At 6:56 A.M. on Friday morning, Mika Brzezinski was hustling down a fluorescent-lit hallway at 30 Rock, en route from the makeup room to the set of Morning Joe. Joe Scarborough, her co-host and recently unveiled fiancé, was trailing slightly behind her. The two anchors had intended on taking the day off in order to commence the July Fourth holiday a little early, but all planning had been thrown out the window some 24 hours earlier. On Thursday morning, of course, President Donald Trump had sent the news cycle into convulsions, and Washington into disarray, by tweeting that “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” had been “bleeding badly from a face-lift” when she and “Psycho Joe” visited him at Mar-a-Lago around New Year’s Eve. 
 
 The series of tweets immediately struck a nerve. Rival networks expressed their support for the anchors; a slew of Republican lawmakers, including Paul Ryan, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse, and Lisa Murkowski, spoke out against the tweet. Brzezinski responded, at first, by tweeting an image of the back of a box of Cheerios depicting a boy with small hands—a reference to Spy magazine, which famously called Trump a short-fingered vulgarian. (Graydon Carter, Spy’s co-founder, is the editor of Vanity Fair.) Subsequently, she and Scarborough composed an op-ed for The Washington Post to run Friday morning declaring that “America’s leaders and allies are asking themselves yet again whether this man is fit to be president. We have our doubts, but we are both certain that the man is not mentally equipped to continue watching our show.” Meanwhile, both decided to address the furor at the top of the 7 A.M. hour on Friday morning. 
 
 As they walked to the set, the newsroom seemed to orbit around them. A huddled scrum of colleagues applauded Brzezinski as she entered the set. Katy Tur, the NBC correspondent who had appeared on the first hour of Morning Joe on Friday, asked Brzezinski if she could give her a hug. The panel awaiting them around the glass desk—including Willie Geist, Katty Kay, and Donny Deutsch—resounded with choruses of "you go, girls," jokes about a missed day off, and a smattering of hugs. As a gaggle of contributors, producers, and support staff gathered to watch what Brzezinski would say, one nearby P.R. person noted that she expected they would be on for seven or eight minutes. 
 
 They stayed on for a little more than a half-hour, with no commercial breaks. “It’s unbelievably alarming that this president is so easily played,” Brzezinski said to the camera at one point. “He’s so easily played—by a cable news host. What is this saying to our allies? What is this saying to our enemies?” Scarborough echoed her concern. “We’re O.K. The country is not.” 
 
 They shared a story about how top White House aides warned them that the National Enquirer, owned by Trump’s longtime friend David Pecker, would publish a negative story about them unless they called the president and asked him to get it killed. (The president later tweeted what appeared to be a confirmation. “He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no!” he wrote. Scarborough responded that this was “yet another lie.”) 
 
 Afterward, they walked off set to more claps and made their way through high-fives and fist bumps to a small hair-washing room across the hallway. Brzezinski, in jeans and tennis shoes, perched on a makeup ledge in front of a wall of mirrors, and took a breath. It had been nearly 24 hours since the president thrust personal details about her—incorrect ones, she contends—into the national spotlight. She had a feeling that the jokes she had made on air on Thursday would “tweak” the president, but she was searching for a “moment of levity,” she said. 
 
 She hadn’t seen the president’s tweets herself until she looked over at Geist on the set, who she said was looking at something on his phone and kind of angling it away from her. Her producer then told her in her ear to stay where she was; he needed to show her something. 
 
 “I said, ‘Guys! What did he tweet?’ Willie showed me, and I started laughing, and said, ‘Shit. I kind of wanted to keep that to myself,’” she said, referring to the procedure she had undergone to tighten the skin under her neck. “I had a turkey neck. My mom told me to get it done,” she explained. “I was FaceTiming all my friends, telling them to get it done, that it wasn’t so bad.” 
 
 She said that she had told Melania Trump about the procedure when the couple stopped by Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve. “The irony of it all is that Donald kept saying, ‘That’s incredible. You can’t even tell. Who did it? Who did it?’ He kept asking for the name of the doctor. He literally asked 10 times. ‘Is he down here? Who is he?’” Scarborough recalled. (A spokesman from the White House declined to comment.) 
 
 In the wake of the president’s tweets, the co-hosts said their staff went quiet. “It was like they were at a funeral,” Scarborough said. “We realize we had to tell everyone we were fine with this, but they were all gone by the time we went out. They were spooked.” 
 
 It wasn’t the first time the co-hosts and their staff had to react to being on the other end of the president’s ire. Last summer, he tweeted that Brzezinski was “a neurotic and not very bright mess!” and threatened to “tell the real story” about their relationship. 
 
 Afterward, they said that the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, brokered a meeting with the four of them. Brzezinski said she explained that the tweet had caused a lot of hurt to her children and family. Trump, she said, apologized. 
 
 “Jared said we should end the meeting right then and there, because it was one of the only times he had heard him apologize,” Scarborough said. (A White House spokesman had no comment about this meeting and the apology.) 
 
 They are not holding their breath for a “sorry” this go-round. “We would take these insults seriously from anyone else,” Scarborough said. “We don’t from him, because, unfortunately, we believe he is in decline.”
– Mika Brzezinski was not on the air Thursday, a day after she caused a ruckus by referring to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a "butt boy." Her Morning Joe co-host—and husband—Joe Scarborough said Brzezinski was "off with her family, a long-planned family event," reports Mediaite. Her absence, though, seems to have only intensified the scrutiny on her over the remark seen as an anti-gay slur. President Trump, who has a history of enmity with the MSNBC hosts, joined the critics. Details: Trump: "If it was a Conservative that said what 'crazed' Mika Brzezinski stated on her show yesterday, using a certain horrible term, that person would be banned permanently from television," the president wrote. "She will probably be given a pass, despite their terrible ratings." Trump also praised Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany, "for having the courage to take this horrible issue on!" Grenell: The ambassador, who is gay, said Brzezinski's initial reponse to the controversy, in which she acknowledged a "SUPER BAD choice of words," didn't cut it. "I don’t see that you’ve actually apologized to gays?" he wrote. "Your words demean, mock and therefore try to control whole groups by minimizing our humanity."