A live Pentagon briefing on the Strait of Hormuz was cut short Friday morning when Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough cut away from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to condemn the secretary’s rhetoric regarding European allies.
The incident happened during a press update where Hegseth was providing details on the U.S. military blockade of the vital Iranian waterway.
After explaining how American units were “controlling” the strait to pressure the Iranian regime, Hegseth pivoted his remarks to address NATO members, echoing a long-standing grievance of the Trump administration.
“We are not counting on Europe, but they need the Strait of Hormuz much more than we do and might want to start doing less talking and having less fancy conferences in Europe and get in a boat,” Hegseth stated during the briefing. “This is much more their fight than ours.”
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Scarborough immediately interrupted the live feed, reacting to the secretary’s suggestion that European nations were avoiding their military responsibilities. The host criticized the administration’s stance, characterizing it as a targeted campaign against traditional Western partners.
“It’s fascinating that he talks about, mocks, and ridicules our allies in Europe that helped us destroy the Soviet Union,” Scarborough said. “This is something the administration is obsessed with—their hatred of Europe, their hatred of Western democracy, their hatred of the very people that helped us defeat the Soviet Union, and also many who fought side by side with us to destroy Nazi Germany and imperial Japan.”
Scarborough further challenged the timing of Hegseth’s “fancy conferences” comment by citing recent financial commitments made by European nations toward the conflict in Ukraine.
“Just a note here, the only reason I’m jumping in, interesting timing to talk about how Europe does nothing but conduct fancy cocktail parties the morning after €90 billion of aid given to Ukraine,” Scarborough added. He concluded his interruption by arguing that the administration’s criticism of Europe stood in contrast to its own current policies regarding Russian expansion.
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