‘Making Sh*t Up!’ Joe Scarborough Rages at Trump Admin’s ‘Totally Insane’ Narco-Boat Strike ‘Spin’

 

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough raged that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was “making sh*t up every day” has the administration floats “totally insane” spin to explain the multiple strikes leveled at a suspected narco-trafficking boat in September.

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Hegseth blamed the “fog of war” for a “double tap” strike on the vessel that reportedly killed two survivors of the initial attack on September 2. The further strike has triggered a political firestorm in Washington, with critics branding it a potential war crime and demanding clarity on what Hegseth knew and when he issued the order.

The scope of criticism around this specific attack, however, has now widened into concerns about the policy as a whole, which has seen more than a dozen strikes on boats along smuggling routes allegedly used by Venezuelan drug cartels.

Scarborough began Morning Joe on Thursday by pointing out that multiple conservative pundits have been critical of the strikes on boats.

“Most serious conservative thinkers like [Fox News regular] Andy McCarthy, [Lawfare writer] Jack Goldsmith, others, they think this entire operation is illegal, not the double tap. They think the entire operation is not a war,” the host said.

He added: “So it is a real mess. And you have the top admiral and the top JAG officer going, ‘No, no, this doesn’t look right.’ And again, it’s all going to come out, even though they’re scrambling around and trying to protect themselves, there’s no protecting themselves from the truth.”

Co-host Willie Geist followed: “And, you know, the explanation we’re hearing a little bit is that maybe these two guys who survived were attempting to get back on the boat and somehow continue the mission –”

Scarborough burst out laughing.

“ – this flaming, smoking vessel,” Geist continued. “That these guys were going to climb back on board and continue their drug run. That’s one of the reports which spins…”

“Which is totally insane!” Scarborough interjected.

Geist agreed: “Which is insane. But that’s part of the spin we’re hearing this morning that those two people were still a threat. Therefore, the double tap. But again, that’s just today’s explanation; there’s something different every day.”

Scarborough cut in: “That’s just today’s explanation. And then there’s also the ‘Oh, well, they had a radio and they were radioing.’ Oh! Does that mean now the new sort of rules of warfare is if you have a prisoner and they’re there in defense, indefensible, and they have a radio, you can shoot them in the head? That’s now the new Hegseth policy – if they have a radio, you can shoot them in the head.”

He continued: “Forget the war crimes. Forget what the US Army manual says. Forget what the military, the DoD manual says. So, yeah, they’re making sh*t up as they go along every day. And the inconsistency of it all again looks very bad.”

Geist followed again, noting Hegseth’s “fog of war” claim, noting his meaning that there’s “a lot of stuff” in the heat of the moment that should just be accepted.

“Utterly ridiculous,” co-host Mika Brzezinski concluded.

Watch above via MS NOW.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!

Tags: