"You're done!" fired off MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski and abruptly cut off the rest of Michael Wolff's interview on the Morning Joe show, Thursday.
In his incendiary best-seller on the White House administration, Fire and Fury, Wolff implied that the president had an affair with United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. But, when the author was confronted on the unsubstantiated rumor, the MSNBC host didn't have time for games.
A passage from the book hinting at the presidential affair reads:
She had become a particular focus of Trump's attention, and he of hers. … The president had been spending a notable amount of private time with Haley on Air Force One, and was seen to be grooming her for a national political future.
After much speculation surfaced that the person Wolff hinted as the woman Trump cheated on the First Lady with was Haley, he told an inquisitive Bill Maher, "You just have to read between the lines."
There is something in the book that I was absolutely sure of, but it was so incendiary that I just didn't have the ultimate proof.
"You just have to read between the lines."(Real Time with Bill Maher/YouTube)
A furious Haley denied the fabricated slur and told Politico she was "distraught" over the false accusation, but Wolff told theSkimm, "She has embraced it."
He wasn't backing off on his assertion. When asked to explain, Wolff said:
Well, I don't know. All she does is hammer on this fact. I mean, if I were being accused of something, and I am not accusing her of anything. She hasn't tried to avoid this, let's say.
Interview from theSkimm.(theSkimm/YouTube)
Susan Del Percio, a political analyst on the Morning Joe called Wolff's actions "irresponsible."
Don't you find that absolutely irresponsible at this point in time where we are as a society? When we're talking about a woman who's a high-profile woman in the Trump administration? To go after her without any evidence, without any facts? It just seems that it's so irresponsible.
Brzezinski cut to the chase and asked Wolff, point blank: "Do you regret inferring anything about Nikki Haley?"
The author remained evasive and eventually responded by saying that Haley was spending "a notable amount of private time" with Trump in the hopes of securing a spot within the administration.
He told the hosts:
I didn't infer anything about Nikki Haley. What I inferred is that many of the people around the president believe he is still involved with various women.
The Morning Joe co-host wasn't on-board with his ramblings.
You might be having a fun time playing a little game, dancing around this, but you're slurring a woman. It's disgraceful.
Brzezinski told Woff, "It's disgraceful"(YouTube)
"Certainly, I didn't accuse her of [having an affair with Trump]," Wolff said, and demanded the hosts to "read me the language" from the book regarding the affair. "Are you kidding me? I'm not reading you anything," brzezinski countered.
Wolff's time was up, and Brzezinski had the last word before cutting to commercial.
You're on the set of Morning Joe. We don't B.S. here. If you don't get it – and you don't get what we're talking about – I'm sorry. This is awkward. You're here on the set with us, but we're done.
The shut-down sparked a dialogue on Twitter.
@jman42/Bluesky
@SecretaryBurgum/X
@Doug Ellin/X
@evanrachelwood/Instagram