MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” anchor Mika Brzezinski is under fire after making a homophobic comment about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on air yesterday morning. While talking about his interview on “Fox & Friends,” during which he appeared to evade questions about the administration’s plans in the wake of journalist Jamal Khashoggi murder, she referred to Pompeo as a “wannabe dictator’s butt boy.”
It looks like the network tried to stop the controversial remark from airing by cutting off her audio, but the damage had already been done. While she was probably trying to refer to him as a “lackey” or “brown-noser,” the term can obviously also come across as referring to a certain dynamic of a homosexual relationship. Now, the host has apologized on social media for her “SUPER BAD choice of words.”
On Twitter, G.E. Anderson said he “was with” Mika until she used the term, writing, “maybe don’t equate homosexuality with Mike Pompeo carrying water for the murderous regime in Saudi Arabia.” In response, Mika tweeted in agreement, noting, “I should have said ‘water boy’... like for football teams or something like that… apologize to @SenatorDurbin too! SO SORRY!” she writes. Check out the tweets below.
Donald Trump Jr. had something to say about the incident, too. We previously reported that Kevin Hart stepped down as the host of the Academy Awards after homophobic tweets of his surfaced. Trump Jr. has taken to Twitter likening Mika’s comments to that, wondering why the comedian was “essentially forced to lose his Oscar’s gig for comments he made years ago” while Mika’s “serious homophobic slur” hasn’t resulted in similar outrage.