MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Tuesday on "Morning Joe" that Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long should "just shut up and do your job."
Scarborough was incensed by Long's comment Sunday that providing relief for the damage caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico is "the most logistically challenging event the United States has ever seen and we have been moving and pushing as fast as the situation allows." Scarborough said that Long's statement does not properly account for war heroes in America's history.
"My god—was it the FEMA director? Somebody yesterday, or the day before, saying, it's difficult because this is the greatest logistical challenge the United States has ever faced," Scarborough said. "To which I say, sir, the ghost of [Douglas] MacArthur and the troops who landed at Inchon, they mock you from beneath their white crosses, as do the 150,000 troops under Dwight D. Eisenhower who came ashore on Omaha Beach, scaled those cliffs, and freed a continent."
"Please, just shut up and do your job," he added. "All right?"
Scarborough's co-host and fiancé, Mika Brzezinski, visibly cringed and let out a sigh at his last words.
"I shouldn't have said that," Scarborough said immediately afterward.
MSNBC's Willie Geist then came in to agree with Scarborough's point.
"Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin might have something to say about that comment as well," Geist added, referring to NASA's Apollo 11 mission that landed on the moon. Geist said this is reflective of President Donald Trump's impulse to insult others.
"When someone's pleading for help from an island, even if you don't like their politics or you believe there's some political motivation, you're the president of the United States," Geist said. "You're the leader. It's not your job to stomp on that person—it's your job to ask how you can help."
"Yeah, and I apologize for saying shut up," Scarborough said. "Let me strike that from the record and just say, 'Please do your job.'"