MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” called out the “dopes” on other news networks Wednesday for their coverage of the Trump administration’s treatment of Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and the other Democrat lawmakers who appeared in a recent video urging American service members not to follow “illegal orders.”
The video in question outraged President Trump, who accused the Democrats involved of engaging in “seditious behavior” that was “punishable by death.” Since then, the Pentagon has launched an investigation into Kelly and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has directed the U.S. Navy to perform its own review of the veteran and astronaut. The FBI and Department of Justice, meanwhile, is in the midst of arranging interviews with the video’s participants, all of whom are either military veterans or former members of the U.S. intelligence community.
In response, “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski said it is time for “members of the media” who routinely “cover Trump in a positive light” and have taken his side on this matter to speak out against the president. “There was this sort of idea that, ‘Oh, he doesn’t mean it,’” Brzezinski said. “You could ask people, Trump supporters, ‘Oh, what do you think of the tariffs?’ [They’d say] ‘He doesn’t mean it. It’s not really going to happen.’”
“Whether it’s tariffs or deportations or retribution, I think we’re at the point now where you can safely say you have evidence that shows, when he says something, he means it,” the “Morning Joe” co-host concluded. “You can’t fall back on that anymore. You have to work with what he says.”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself in the video below.
Joe Scarborough echoed Brzezinski’s comments. “You have some of these networks that really are acting like their viewers are idiots, acting like they can’t read the word ‘illegal,’ acting like they can wish away the word ‘illegal,’” the former Florida congressman said. “I’ve just seen dopes go on there screaming and yelling and waving their arms and acting as if the word ‘illegal’ is not in there.”
“Unfortunately, I saw a CIA spokesperson do the same thing yesterday, suggesting that [Michigan Senator] Elissa Slotkin had said the CIA was issuing illegal orders and CIA operatives should ignore them. No, that’s a lie,’” Scarborough continued. “That is a lie. There’s no ambiguity there. That’s not what she said. She said, ‘In the future, if you receive illegal orders, you are duty bound by the oath that you have taken not to follow.’ And yet the insulting of these viewers [continues].”
“Again, it’s just going to end up hurting Republicans in the end,” the “Morning Joe” host noted. “It just is going to end up helping Mark Kelly, helping these veterans, helping these former CIA analysts. It’s going to help them and it’s going to end up hurting this Republican Party that keeps engaging in political self-harm because they will not stand up and say not only the right thing, but the thing that everybody knows.”
