7 high-profile political figures who made a splashy transition to the media industry

Joe Scarborough

Scarborough was elected to the US House from Florida during the 1994 “Republican Revolution,” when his party regained a majority in the lower chamber after 50 years of Democratic control.

While in Congress, Scarborough championed conservative policies on everything from foreign affairs to the federal budget.

He later stepped down from the House in September 2001.

In 2003, Scarborough began hosting the MSNBC program “Scarborough Country.” The show ran until 2007.

Since 2007, he has hosted the MSNBC program “Morning Joe.”

In March 2024, Both Scarborough and his cohost (and wife) Mika Brzezinski publicly voiced their disagreement over the McDaniel hire and stated that she would not be a guest on their program.

After President-elect Donald Trump’s November 2024 victory, Scarborough and Brzezinski were rebuked by many of their viewers after the pair went to Mar-a-Lago after the election in a push to “restart communications” with the incoming president, whom they were very critical of during the campaign.

Scarborough defended the move and waved off the criticism.

“Yesterday I saw for the first time what a massive disconnect there was between social media and the real world because we were flooded with phone calls from people all day, literally around the world, all very positive, very supportive,” he said in November.