Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to lash out at the media for reporting on the deaths of American service members taking part in Donald Trump’s war on Iran was blistered on MS NOW on Thursday morning with the former Fox News personality being called both “childish” and “pathetic."
During his press conference, Hegseth dismissed the six deaths while ranting, “When a few drones get through, or tragic things happen, it’s front page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality. The terms of this war will be set by us at every step.”
Lumping in White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for making similar remarks, “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough fired back, “When our fallen warriors were brought up and the secretary of defense and the spokesperson for the White House yesterday acted like even 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 one of the most childish ––It was just so childish–– proved once again, Pete Hegseth is not, he's nowhere near prepared to be secretary of defense,” he added. “He's emotionally not there. He's not there in every other way. But 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.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski chipped in, “But when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine took to the podium, it is the first thing he talked about. Of course, it is the first thing he talked about, and he talked about grief and gratitude and dedication to this country, which is how you start.”
“I remember thinking, watching Pete Hegseth going, ‘How childish is this?’ Is this language he's using and this sort of bro-centric tough-guy. ‘We sunk their battleship.’ It was pathetic, but also embarrassing,” she continued.
Noting the press will always cover military deaths in a war, Scarborough concluded, “We're not going to stop now because Donald Trump is president. Stop, stop, act like a man, act like a man, and honor fallen heroes instead of trying to make it about Donald Trump.”