In a story published Tuesday, NBC's Willie Geist spoke with NorthJersey.com about the sexual-misconduct scandal that resulted in the November firing of his colleague Matt Lauer.
"I think it was a shock to everybody. I don’t know how you couldn’t be surprised," Geist, 42, told interviewer Mike Kelly, a columnist for the Bergen County N.J. Record. "I started filing in for Matt in 2010. I wasn’t close to him outside of work, but I considered him a friend and mentor. Certainly, he was somebody I looked up to. He was the guy who was considered the best at that job, at hosting a morning show. So, yeah, I think we were all surprised and I think we’re all still a little bit shocked by it."
Geist, who hosts Sunday Today in addition to his weekday referee duties on MSNBC's Morning Joe, dismissed talk that he might replace Lauer as a "fun parlor game," noting, "Honestly, I hear that and I read about it, and I haven’t had a word of conversation with anybody (at NBC) about it."
Pressed about whether he actually covets Lauer's vacated anchor chair, he told Kelly, "I’ll just be totally honest with you: I love Morning Joe. I’m on the show that is the place to go in the morning for the hottest story in the world, which is Donald Trump. And I have a show on Sunday — a Today show with my name on it — where I get to write it and help control the content and interview people I find incredibly interesting. I really genuinely love these two jobs."
Speaking of Morning Joe, Geist says he sees himself as the viewers' representative.
"Sometimes if we get too far in the weeds about the moving parts of a bill in Congress or what’s happening in Washington, I’m thinking about what question the viewers at home might want to ask. If I’m doing my job well, I’m asking the question the viewer is thinking about as they watch."
