The hosts of “Morning Joe” slammed Pete Hegseth’s attacks on the U.S. media this week in response to questions about American casualties in the escalating Iran War, calling the Secretary of Defense’s behavior “childish” and “pathetic.”
During a press conference Wednesday, Hegseth accused mainstream media outlets of focusing on the American lives lost in the Iran War in favor of making President Donald Trump “look bad” instead of reporting “the reality” of the situation. “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough took serious exception to that accusation, telling his viewers Thursday morning that Hegseth acted as if “mentioning these fallen heroes’ names was like a slur against the president.”
“They actually tried to make the death of American troops about Donald Trump. It was just so childish. Proved once again Pete Hegseth is nowhere near prepared to be Secretary of Defense. He’s emotionally not there,” Scarborough said. “These are our fallen heroes, and the suggestion that we should be like Vladimir Putin and just ignore when American heroes die in uniform while serving this country … This is not about Donald Trump.”
“Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski joined the discussion and said that Hegseth’s remarks were “pathetic, but also embarrassing.” She, Scarborough and co-anchor Willie Geist, meanwhile, all applauded Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine for going out of his way in the same press conference to mention and honor the soldiers who died this week.
“He understands that it’s about honor and dignity and gratitude for the lives of those men. Pete Hegseth, on the other hand, views this as a political problem,” Geist remarked. “That was an extraordinary moment from a man in Pete Hegseth who has served, presumably gets it, but now is so captured by politics.”
Geist said Hegseth acts like his job is to “attack the news media, to attack any critic” of the president. “That is not your job as Secretary of Defense,” the “Morning Joe” co-anchor noted, addressing Hegseth directly. “Conduct the war alongside more experienced people, thank goodness, like General Caine.”
“We’re not Russia. We don’t just throw people at the front lines [and] when they die, pretend they didn’t die. We honor our fallen heroes,” Scarborough reiterated. The “Morning Joe” host then urged, “Let’s remember the fallen, and let’s honor them and let’s pray for their families. There’s nothing wrong with that, Pete.”
“That’s what we have been doing as a country for 250 years. We’re not going to stop now, because Donald Trump’s president,” Scarborough concluded, telling Hegseth, “Stop. Act like a man and honor fallen heroes instead of trying to make it about Donald Trump.”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself above.
