Joe Scarborough blasted JD Vance on Wednesday’s “Morning Joe” after the vice president downplayed Donald Trump’s war with Iran, calling the conflict — which has sent fuel prices soaring around the globe and left thousands across the Middle East dead, including at least 13 U.S. service members — “a little blip.”
During a rally in Iowa on Tuesday, Vance acknowledged the hardships American farmers are experiencing because of rising energy prices caused by the war. “We also know that a lot of our farmers are struggling with high fertilizer prices,” he said. “I’m aware of that. As the president of the United States has said, we’ve got a little blip in the Middle East.”
Scarborough reminded Vance of the true cost of the president’s war, which he pointed out was on full display on the very first day of the conflict, when a U.S. missile hit an elementary school in Minab, Iran, killing at least 175 people, many of them children. “Over 100 schoolchildren being killed the first day of the war is a ‘blip,’” Scarborough said.
The MS NOW host also spoke about the devastating impacts of the war on other areas of the Middle East, as the conflict spread to nearby Lebanon, where Israeli attacks have killed about 2,700 people and displaced more than 1.2 million.
“You have JD Vance calling a ‘blip’ entire communities in Lebanon being wiped off the face of the earth,” he said. “How would JD Vance feel if his community that he grew up in didn’t have a building left standing? That’s what’s happening in Lebanon — all across Lebanon — because of this ‘blip.’”
Recommended
Beyond the casualties, Scarborough said, “people across the world are paying for this, day in and day out, with an economy that’s getting worse.”
“If this is what JD Vance calls a blip, well then, JD Vance is not a serious person. He is not a compassionate person,” Scarborough said, adding that the comments showcased the vice president’s “lack of humanity.”
“Calling this something that caused this much suffering a blip speaks volumes,” he said.
You can watch Scarborough’s full analysis in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”