'Morning Joe' hosts condemn conservative's 'flippant' Hegseth critique after Trump Mar-a-Lago meeting

During Wednesday's segment of Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski made a point to blast a comment made by conservative guest, Atlantic staff writer David Frum, regarding Donald Trump's controversial defense secretary nominee, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Mediate reports.

Asked about his thoughts on the MAGA pick — who faces a slew of sexual assault and alcohol abuse accusations — the former President George W. Bush speechwriter said, "Well, just given what one sees on camera, if you’re too drunk for Fox News, you’re very, very drunk indeed. So, that’s alarming. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush nominated John Tower, senator from Texas, for Secretary of Defense. And Tower was a very considerable person, a real defense intellectual, someone who deeply understood defense, unlike the current nominee."

He added, "And it emerged that Tower had a drinking problem. And when he was drinking too much, he would make himself a nuisance or worse to women around him. And for that reason, his nomination collapsed in 1989. You don’t wanna think that our moral standards have declined so much that you can say, 'Let’s take all the drinking, all the sex-pesting, subtract any knowledge of defense, subtract any leadership. And there’s your next Secretary of Defense for the 21st century.'"

READ MORE: Here’s who Trump might pick for defense secretary if Hegseth withdraws

Brzezinski responded to Frum's claim by making a disclaimer to viewers later on in the episode.

"Before we go to break, a little earlier in this block, there was a comment made about Fox News in our coverage about Pete Hegseth and the growing number of allegations about his behavior over the years and possible addiction to alcohol or issues with alcohol," Brzezinski said.

"The comment was a little too flippant for this moment that we are in," she continued. "We just wanna make that comment as well. We wanna make that clear. We have differences in coverage with Fox News and that’s a good debate that we should have often. But right now, I just wanna say to say there are a lot of good people who work at Fox News who care about Pete Hegseth and we’ll wanna leave it at that."

READ MORE: Hawley throws Hegseth under the bus: 'Not 100% clear who Trump really wants right now'

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