Joe Scarborough Absolutely GOES OFF at Critics Accusing Him of ‘Fearing’ Trump in Scorched Earth Rant: ‘I’ll Do My Show the Way I Want!’

Morning Joe opened Thursday with a ferocious 20-minute rebuttal led by host Joe Scarborough to an article by Atlantic writer David Frum, who objected to a disclaimer issued for a flippant joke he made on Wednesday’s show about Fox News about the network’s former host and defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth’s alleged drinking behavior.

Frum appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday; the segment took a sharp turn after his quip about Fox News drew criticism from the show’s producers and resulted in an on-air disclaimer from co-host Mika Brzezinski.

The hosts referenced an NBC News report claiming Hegseth’s alleged heavy drinking had raised concerns among colleagues at Fox News and the veterans’ organizations he once led. Frum quipped: “If you’re too drunk for Fox News, you’re very, very drunk indeed.”

The comment drew a rebuke from a producer at the time, and later, after Frum had finished his segment, Brzezinski rejected the joke as “flippant” to viewers.

The matter didn’t end there, however. Frum then penned a scathing article in the Atlantic about the experience and criticized the MSNBC hosts as acting out of “fear” of President-elect Donald Trump. He argued the apology by Brzezinski was evidence of “the chill of intimidation” and that the network was “responding with efforts to appease.”

On Thursday morning, Scarborough and Brzezinski led the show with a “point of personal privilege” to respond in kind to Frum’s column.

What was the headline? The sound of fear. That wasn’t the sound of fear, that was the sound of civility. In saying that Mika had apologized, she didn’t apologize. She simply said it was too flippant.

I would recommend, if we are at a stage where, like, this causes a meltdown… And saw George Conway, another guy that we have on the show, we love George. Saying, ‘read this article, it’s going to make you very sad but you must read it all. Oh! Because of the fearful times we are in.’ Well, there’s some problem with the times that we are in.

You can’t be fearful. Just because some people have said that we are fearful. Let me tell you something, you can talk to anybody that has worked in the front office of NBC and MSNBC over the past 22 years. I tell you, I’m not fearful. If you talk to anybody served with me in congress, they will tell you, not fearful of leadership. Now? Not fearful.

Scarborough then explained that Frum was supposed to be on the show “to talk through this.”

He then continued, blasting Frum’s original comment as unacceptable and the editorial decision to call it out as fair.

Let me tell you, something they wouldn’t certainly never let in the pages of the Atlantic or the Washington Post. Or the New York Times. They would never do that. I actually asked an editor over at the Atlantic, when he was so shocked. I said, would you allow me in writing a column at the Atlantic to say, ‘if you are too drunk for the New York Times you are very, very drunk?’ ‘If you’re too drunk for the New York Post you are very, very drunk indeed?’

Scarborough then rounded on criticism that had been leveled at him and Brzezinski for their visit to Trump in Mar-a-Lago.

Guess what? This is what’s been going on now for several weeks. We went down to talk to the President-elect. And people wrote articles that were just false. But you know what we did? We did the corporate thing. Corporate said, ‘don’t say anything. Just keep your head down.’ What did the royal say? Never explain, never complain. We did that.

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving. You know what? People are upset with some of our guests, some of our friends. We snuck up on them too fast. We should have given them more of a warning. Whatever… The main complaint was that we called Donald Trump’s rhetoric fascist during the campaign. And then we went down to have an off the record comment.

The host continued to defend the decision to “go there” as a point of journalistic responsibility before returning again to Frum’s article, apologizing if the on-air editorial rejection “blindsided him” but firmly rejecting the idea that it was an appeasement of Trump to do so.

And he went on to say, “I always have Republicans say, ‘Oh, they’re telling you exactly what to say.’ No! Nobody’s once told me what to say here. Well actually, one person did one time. One leader did one time. I said ‘I’ll tell you what, if you think you can do such a damn good job, why don’t you come here and do the show four hours a day? I’m fine quitting. But I’m gonna do my show. I’ll do my show the way I want to do my show!'”

The hosts noted that Frum will join them on the show Friday to discuss his critique.

Watch above on MSNBC.