Six years after leaving his political career behind, Joe Scarborough joined Morning Joe as a host. But an absence from the program on one of the biggest news days of the year left viewers a little confused.
Did Joe Scarborough Leave ‘Morning Joe’?
Joe did not leave Morning Joe, nor has he announced any plans to step away from the show. However, it is not uncommon for the hosts, including Joe, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist, to take days off from the show periodically.
On April 15, 2024, Joe was absent from the program at the start of former President Donald Trump‘s New York trial. Morning Joe viewers took to social media to express their confusion regarding Joe’s absence from TV that day.
“So…..where TF is Joe at today? It is called Morning Joe,” one person wrote on X during the episode.
“No Joe again? On one of the biggest news days ever? I’ll watch, but the show is dreary without him,” another viewer penned.
Joe’s wife, Mika, took the lead on the show that day, hosting a slew of guest commentators and leading segments. The reason behind his absence was not immediately addressed.
Shannon Finney/WireImage
Inside Joe Scarborough’s Job History
Formerly, Joe served in the United States House of Representatives for Florida’s 1st district from 1995 to 2001. The journalist explained his reasoning for leaving his career as a politician.
“The realization has come home to me that they’re at a critical stage of their lives and I would rather be judged at the end of my life as a father than as a congressman,” he said in May 2001, per The Washington Post.
Joe is a dad to sons Joey and Andrew with his first wife, Melanie Hinton, and kids Kate and Jack with his second wife, Susan Warren.
“If I had a crystal ball and could have foreseen the future, I probably wouldn’t have run last year,” he said at the time.
In 2003, he began hosting the analysis show Scarborough Country. The series came to an end in 2007 when he focused his attention on Morning Joe that year. In addition to his TV hosting career, Joe has authored multiple books and released an EP.
He married Mika in 2018 in Washington, D.C., after 11 years of working together on the MSNBC show. Joe admitted that he and his spouse “fight a lot” but always solve their problems together.
“For me, the mistake always was I’m very driven at work, but I go home and I don’t want to fight. I’m passive aggressive. I’m sort of like, ‘Whatever you want to do,’” the broadcaster told People of his marriage in August 2017. “That’s really what I think hurt me in one relationship after another. And differences grow over a decade and things ultimately blow up. With Mika and me, we both learn you have to. If there’s a problem, put it on the table immediately. If it gets ugly, it gets ugly. You go there and you fight through it.”
