It was like a mother trying to lead her naughty son through an apology . . . 

Last week, Joe Scarborough predicted he would "get in trouble" for calling John Harwood's biased performance as debate moderator "embarrassing." On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski tried, in what seemed perhaps to be a pre-arranged mea culpa, to force Joe to say "I really respect everyone I work with." Joe didn't play along with the script but did ultimately mutter "of course I do" before quickly moving on.

So was this something the MSNBC suits cooked up? Had Joe agreed to mouth the words Mika fed him, only to clam up when the cameras came on?

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Gene, we had this talk a couple days ago about bias, and debates, and all this other stuff, which I'm too tired to get into.
 
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: You should say, you should say, that that was an interesting conversation. 

JOE: That was an interesting conversation. 

MIKA: But, but . . . 

JOE: But. But? 

MIKA: Come on now. 

JOE: Come on, now. Okay. I don't know why she just had me say that. 

MIKA: You really respect everyone you work with.

JOE: So anybody, but, but anyway, of course I do, so anyway ---