Morning Joe Crew Have Fun With Mika Brzezinski’s Disgust at ‘Barbaric’ White House UFC Fight: ‘What Could Be More American?’

MSNBC’s Morning Joe crew had some fun with co-host Mika Brzezinski’s disgust at President Donald Trump’s idea of a UFC “fight night” on the White House lawn in 2026 as part of America250 celebrations.

Brzezinski raised the topic without prompt while running through the list of Kennedy Center Honors nominees named by Trump at an event on Wednesday, jibing: “I’m kind of relieved that, like, I don’t see fight night here, at least, because there’s fight night…”

As she began a tirade, husband and co-host Joe Scarborough erupted into laughter.

“You’re really concerned,” he began, smiling.

“I mean, fight night,” Brzezinski furiously stuttered. “At the White House?!”

“Jon,” Scarborough interrupted, speaking to co-host Jonathan Lemire, “This really disturbed Mika yesterday. Apparently this fight night thing is really popular, you know? If you don’t believe me, ask [UFC parent company TKO Holdings’ CEO] Ari Emmanual about how popular this fight night stuff is.”

“No! Ari!” Brzezinski bristled. “Ari needs to get rid of it!”

Referencing UFC’s new $7.7 billion streaming deal with Paramount, Lemire joined in: “I mean the money that just signed this deal, this Paramount deal is proof how popular it is. It may not be for us.”

“It’s yucky,” Brzezinski replied. “Barbaric!”

Scarborough cut in: “Oh, Mika! Mika! Mika! Do you know how we say from time-to-time we feel sorry for [NFL Commissioner] Roger Goodell? Because he has to wear a raincoat and an umbrella when he goes to work, because money’s coming out of the vent so much? That’s the same thing with Ari. Since buying [UFC], he has to wear scuba gear to work so he can breathe because, I mean, this is again, I’m an old dude. I haven’t been to any of these fights before. The kids watch it. The kids love to talk about how big this is.”

“Yeah, it’s gigantic. And really, what could be more American than a roundhouse kick to the head?” Lemire joked.

“So I think that’s what we want on the lawn on July 4th!” he added.

As Brzezinski grew more agitated by the mocking, Scarborough launched into a rendition of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”

“I’m surprised Lee Greenwood’s not on the list for the Kennedy Center Honors,” Lemire said, winking at Scarborough.

Watch above via MSNBC.

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