‘Morning Joe’ got frisky as host Joe Scarborough mocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s awkward hand gesture.
March 25 2026, Updated 7:25 p.m. ET
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Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough had a field day mocking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for his awkwardly suggestive innuendos during a Tuesday, March 25, Oval Office press conference.
As Hegseth issued blustery statements about the war in Iran, President Donald Trump stood behind him, appearing to fall asleep, but appeared to be shaken awake by Hegseth’s gesture.
“We’re keeping our hand on that throttle. As long as it’s hard, as is necessary to ensure the interests of the United States of America are achieved on that battlefield,” the overly enthusiastic defense secretary explained.
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The hosts joked about the moment on ‘Morning Joe.’
Scarborough played the clip on the Wednesday, March 25, episode of his show, focusing on the innuendo in which an emphatic Hegseth stated, “As long as it’s hard.”
Scarborough noted that even Trump appeared to take note, saying the “president’s eyebrows [were], like, ‘Yeah, well, I guess so.’”
Co-host Willie Geist jumped in on the action, adding much to demure Mika Brzezinski’s dismay, saying, “Put the throttle down!”
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Joe Scarborough brought up the moment on his show.
Scarborough kept going, saying, “Go all the way! You know, it’s very interesting to me that, you know, Donald Trump, anybody that’s ever talked to him, he always talks about central casting. This guy… ”
“I was uncomfortable,” Brzezinski admitted.
“This guy about the throttle, this guy is the opposite of central casting. Like he’s a kid!” Scarborough exclaimed before seizing on Hegseth’s other questionable statement in which he said, “We’ll negotiate with bombs.”
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The pair tore into Pete Hegseth.
“I mean, do you think an Iranian, like a member of the Revolutionary Guards, is going to go: ‘Oh, this scares me very much!’ No! Because of what a clown! You put the generals up with all those medals, and they talk about, ‘Hey, we’re gonna…’ yada, yada…” Scarborough quipped.
An appalled Brzezinski asked, “I just — but what was he saying?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know. We’ll talk about that later,” Scarborough joked to his wife before tearing back into the former Fox News host.
“But you get what I’m saying. This guy is the opposite of central casting. This guy isn’t [U.S. Army General] Norman Schwarzkopf, right? This guy isn’t like those guys that were up in the Gulf War, the first Gulf War, I mean, he’s a kid, and I don’t even say that…” he said.
“It’s not comforting,” Brzezinski admitted.
“Well, you don’t want to be comforting up there. You want to scare the h— out of people,” Scarborough exclaimed.
“You want to feel like the person really has a grasp of the situation,” Brzezinski said, unwittingly adding fuel to the frisky fire.
Willie Geist weighed in on Pete Hegseth’s gesture.
Scarborough immediately pounced on that, adding, “He’s got a grasp of the throttle, he says. But, Willie, really, it’s so childish. He’s a kid. And why? This guy’s not from central casting. You want to scare the Iranians. This does not do that.”
Geist noted that Hegseth is speaking to an audience of one.
“That is the Department of Defense, and that kind of bluster feels unconvincing, I guess, to put it mildly. It feels like he’s trying to play a part and say the thing that will get him a pat on the back from the guy standing behind him,” he said before Scarborough jumped in.
“Trying too hard,” Scarborough said.
“It’s frat boy rhetoric,” co-host Jonathan Lemire offered, adding that “there is a clip that zeroes in on President Trump’s face as Hegseth’s doing the throttle, his eyebrows, he just can’t keep him in control.”
Brzezinski was over it.
“Oh my gosh, OK,” she said before ending the cheeky conversation.
