The Atlantic staff writer David Frum wrote Wednesday that he may be on the outs with Morning Joe after his Wednesday appearance on the MSNBC morning show went awry during a discussion about Pete Hegseth and his former employer, Fox News.
Discussing allegations that Hegseth has abused alcohol, Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, notes that that concern also doomed George H. W. Bush’s 1989 nomination of Texas Sen. John Tower for the same post.
The columnist led off his comments by saying, “If you’re too drunk for Fox News, you’re very, very drunk indeed.”
As Frum tells it in the piece titled “The Sound of Fear on Air,” a producer warned him twice during the next commercial break not to repeat that comment.
Additionally, co-host Mika Brzezinski offered an apology to Fox News later in the show.
“The comment was a little too flippant for this moment that we’re in,” she said.
“We have differences in coverage with Fox News, and that’s a good debate that we should have often,” she continued. “But right now I just want to say there’s a lot of good people who work at Fox News who care about Pete Hegseth, and we want to leave it at that.”
In his column, Frum leaves it up to viewers to make up their minds as to whether what he said was inappropriate.
“But I also note that if I did misstep, well, my face was on the screen, my name was on the chyron, and anyone who took offense knows whom to blame,” he writes.
Frum also notes how NBC News’ own reporting found that several current and former Fox staffers were concerned about Hegseth’s drinking habits.
Brzezinski “is right, of course: There are good people at Fox News,” Frum writes.
“But if NBC’s reporting—based on interviews with 10 current or former Fox employees—about Hegseth’s alcohol abuse is accurate, many of those same good people have failed to report publicly that their former colleague, appointed to lead the armed forces of the United States, was notorious in their own building for his drinking,” he continues. “That would be a startling and shameful shirking of responsibility on a matter of grave national importance. What’s the appropriate language to call it out?”
In a statement after Frum’s piece went live, an MSNBC spokesperson defended Brzezinski’s on-air response, and invited Frum back on the show Thursday.
“Joe and Mika have consistently expressed their strong reservations and perspectives regarding Pete Hegseth’s nomination from the very beginning, and that stance remains unchanged,” Richard Hudock, the network’s vice president of communications, wrote on X.
“We would have responded in the same manner regardless of when these comments were made or what news organization was referenced,” he continued. “We have great respect for @davidfrum and his contributions; he is a valued member of the @Morning_Joe family. We invite him to join us tomorrow to discuss this topic and other pressing news stories of the day.”
Some other context—relevant to Morning Joe specifically—that Frum mentions is how Brzezinski and co-host Joe Scarborough visited Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election in an effort to reboot their often adversarial relationship. That move was seen by some as “kissing the ring.”
Of Wednesday’s events, Frum concluded: “It is a very ominous thing if our leading forums for discussion of public affairs are already feeling the chill of intimidation and responding with efforts to appease.”
