‘Morning Joe’ Blasts Firing of CNN’s Chris Licht: ‘I Would Die Before I Let a Magazine Article Determine Who I Was Going to Hire or Fire’

”That’s scared money,“ host Joe Scarborough said of the decision to oust Licht

“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough came to the defense of former CNN CEO Chris Licht once again on Friday, taking direct aim at – according to Scarborough – allowing the infamous The Atlantic article about Licht to dictate the decision to fire Licht.

“Let me just say this about my friend Chris Licht at CNN,” Scarborough began. “Chris made mistakes, right? He made mistakes and as I said, he learned from mistakes. Zaslav decided to fire him or to let him go. That’s Zaslav’s decision. Let me just tell you, though: let’s take Chris and Zas out of this. If I were a CEO, I would die before I let a magazine article determine who I was going to hire or fire. I would call him in and say ‘You screwed up, shut your mouth, keep your head down, do the job I hired you for, and we’re going to put this behind us.’”

A lengthy and unflattering profile of Licht was released in The Atlantic on Friday, June 2. On the following Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav fired Licht, after the embattled CNN head had apologized to his staff for “overshadowing” the newsroom’s reporting.

Scarborough’s comments came during a segment about how Bud Light handled the backlash to having trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney promote its beer.

“What happens is, just like we’ve talked about with Nike, just like we talked about with the NFL, you don’t let people dictate your terms,” Scarborough continued. “If people are pissed off about Bud Light — you know, it’s so funny, Chris quoted me in the [Atlantic] piece, ‘Scared money never wins.’ It applied to his firing! That’s scared money. Keep your head down and don’t let other people tell you what to do with your blanking company.”

Zaslav took responsibility for Licht’s rocky tenure as CEO of CNN in a memo to staff the day of Licht’s firing.

“I have known Chris for many years and have enormous respect for him, personally and professionally,” Zaslav said. “This job was never going to be easy, especially at a time of great disruption and transformation, and Chris poured his heart and soul into it. He has a deep love for journalism and this business and that has been evident throughout his tenure. Unfortunately, things did not work out the way we had hoped – and ultimately that’s on me. I take responsibility. Needless to say, we appreciate Chris’ efforts and dedication and wish him all the best.”

A new quartet of execs is running CNN in an interim capacity as Zaslav looks for a permanent replacement for Licht. In a memo to staff, Amy Entelis, Virginia Mosely, Eric Sherling and David Leavy, who was brought on as COO of CNN Worldwide ahead of Licht’s firing, pledged to “meet the moment” and said they were “fully committed to championing the important work being done across all teams around the world.”