--- title: Joe Scarborough Is Leaving the Republican Party description: MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough is leaving the Republican Party to become an independent, he announced Tuesday. canonical: https://time.com/4854234/joe-scarborough-leaves-republican-party-morning-joe/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-12T00:51:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:31:02.332Z article:section: Politics og:title: 'Morning Joe' Co-Host Joe Scarborough Is Leaving the Republican Party og:description: He will become an independent og:url: https://time.com/4854234/joe-scarborough-leaves-republican-party-morning-joe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffa72e1d7c8c894c/6988d41dcf40a8cbb0c4860f/morning-joe-ratings-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: "The Americans" Season 5 Premiere og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Morning Joe' Co-Host Joe Scarborough Is Leaving the Republican Party twitter:description: He will become an independent twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffa72e1d7c8c894c/6988d41dcf40a8cbb0c4860f/morning-joe-ratings-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Morning Joe_ Co-Host Joe Scarborough Is Leaving the Republican Party > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=0c286ecb-1458-441d-9244-457cf26ecf1b&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 12, 2017 12:51 AM UTC  Television hosts Joe Scarborough (L) and Mika Brzezinski attend "The Americans" Season 5 Premiere at DGA Theater on Feb. 25, 2017 in New York City. Television hosts Joe Scarborough (L) and Mika Brzezinski attend "The Americans" Season 5 Premiere at DGA Theater on Feb. 25, 2017 in New York City. Paul Zimmerman—WireImage/ Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 12, 2017 12:51 AM UTC [Joe Scarborough](http://time.com/4843037/donald-trump-tweets-morning-joe/) is leaving the Republican Party to become an independent, he announced Tuesday. “You have to ask yourself, what in fact is the Republican party willing to do? How far are they willing to go? How much of this country and their values are they willing to sell out?” the former Congressman-turned-_Morning Joe_ co-host told Stephen Colbert on _The Late Show_ Tuesday evening. “But aren’t you a Republican?” Colbert asked. “I am a Republican, but I’m not going to be a Republican any more,” he replied. ” I’ve got to become an independent ” Scarborough, who represented Florida’s first district in Congress [from 1994 t0 2001,](http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/joe-scarborough-biography) said it is “inexplicable” that Republicans have continued to defend Trump. “It was disturbing through the entire campaign,” he told Colbert. “Time and time and time again they turned the other way. And they’re doing the same thing now. And its actually disgusting.” > [](https://twitter.com/colbertlateshow/status/884920897097879552) Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy, Scarborough has been a frequent critic of the President. He and his fiancee/co-host Mika Brzezinski recently became [the focus of Trump’s twitter ire](http://time.com/4841282/donald-trump-mika-brzezinski-morning-joe-scarborough/), with the President referring to them as “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and “Psycho Joe.” In that same Twitter spree, Trump also alleged that Brzezinski had a face lift, which she later denied. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4854234/joe-scarborough-leaves-republican-party-morning-joe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4854234/joe-scarborough-leaves-republican-party-morning-joe/"},"headline":"Morning Joe Co-Host Joe Scarborough Is Leaving the Republican Party","datePublished":"2017-07-12T00:51:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:31:02.332Z","description":"He will become an independent","url":"https://time.com/4854234/joe-scarborough-leaves-republican-party-morning-joe/","keywords":["Television","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffa72e1d7c8c894c/6988d41dcf40a8cbb0c4860f/morning-joe-ratings-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffa72e1d7c8c894c/6988d41dcf40a8cbb0c4860f/morning-joe-ratings-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"The Americans\" Season 5 Premiere","caption":"\"The Americans\" Season 5 Premiere","creditText":"Paul Zimmerman—WireImage/ Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4854234/joe-scarborough-leaves-republican-party-morning-joe/","name":"Morning Joe Co-Host Joe Scarborough Is Leaving the Republican Party"}}]}] ```