'Butt Gate'! Joe Scarborough's Hypocrisy On Implying Someone's Homosexual

Mika Brzezinski Joe Scarborough MS NOW Morning Joe 10-14-26

Joe Scarborough opened Tuesday's Morning Joe with an innuendo-laden routine—including a Village People reference—about President Trump riffing at an Ohio rally that he'd looked at the "ass" of Sen. Jon Husted.

Scarborough joked that his sidekick Willie Geist was "sort of the Walter Cronkite of male ass-gazing by politicians." Scarborough made a point of emphatically mentioning "ass"-- to Mika's supposed horror [see screencap.] He called this controversy "Butt Gate."

At the same time, Muy Macho Joe wanted to assure viewers that, unlike Trump, he had no interest in the male anatomy. Scarborough jumped in to say that when he gets old and uninhibited, wife Mika won't have to worry about that; on the contrary, she'll have to contain his outbursts about "the other side," i.e., female anatomy.

You might have thought that, after his crude and distasteful comments, Scarborough would apologize for his remarks on today's show. Just kidding! We're talking about Joe Scarborough.

It got worse. Scarborough and Geist also used unsubtle innuendo to mock JD Vance, without evidence, over his supposed use of eyeliner, implying he could be gay. "Have you ever known a man to wear eyeliner?...Nothing wrong with it!. If that’s your gig."

Then it got even worse, as Joe and Willie blasted Vance for his public suggestions about James Talarico's sexuality. Granted, JD's speculation was not in the best taste. But Scarborough and Geist surmised that Vance might be "projecting," i.e., in suggesting that Talarico might be gay or interested in trans youths, JD was revealing his own interests: "We just had a vice president, wearing David Bowie’s eyeliner, actually questioning the sexuality of another man...It's always either projection or confession."

Was Scarborough unaware of his outrageous hypocrisy in criticizing Vance for his innuendo about Talarico, when Scarborough did the same thing vis-à-vis Trump yesterday and Vance today—or does he just not give a rip?

As for Mika's ostensibly horrified reaction to Scarborough's crude language, could her reaction be, in significant part, a shtick of her own? Mika is Morning Joe's designated schoolmarm and protector of propriety. But, surely, during show prep—not to mention in pillow talk—she must be well aware of what Joe is planning. If Mika truly finds it so offensive, hard to believe she couldn't put her foot down and warn him off.

Here's the transcript.

MS NOW
Morning Joe
10/14/26
6:02 am EDT

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Let’s now go to our male ass-gazing desk, and Willie Geist. No, Willie, you don’t do that. You do report on politicians who do. Any reports from presidents or prime ministers gazing at men’s asses during the night?

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Stop! Stop, stop, stop!

WILLIE GEIST: This is my beat, so let me get the context. But

SCARBOROUGH: It’s almost like you don’t --

BRZEZINSKI: We're on the air!

SCARBOROUGH: -- want us to do the news. I’m sorry. I’m a newsman.

GEIST: This is our coverage of the President of the United States.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: And you're well-sourced in this.

GEIST: Yeah, thank you. 

SCARBOROUGH: You're well-sourced in this. Look at him, sort of, just look at him, the sort of the Walter Cronkite.

BRZEZINSKI: Oh, don’t say it.

SCARBOROUGH: Of male ass gazing by politicians. 

GEIST: Sorry, Mr. Cronkite, and to the entire Cronkite family. The president, two nights ago in Ohio, not your words, his, was admiring the, quote, ass of Senator John Husted and his general physique.

SCARBOROUGH: He’s a, he’s a male physique man these days, right? I’ve noticed over the past couple of years, he talks about men being buff. Oh, look how buff they are-- he’s a good-looking guy.

GEIST: Just ask the Giants quarterback. I mean, he loves those tree-trunk legs on him.

SCARBOROUGH: Tree-trunk legs of Jaxson Dart. Now, let me ask you, did he, did he talk about those tree-trunk legs on, on stage, talking about Jaxson Dart?

GEIST: It didn’t come up last night in Alaska, where he traveled 4,000 miles from the White House yesterday to stump for Senator Dan Sullivan, who cuts a striking figure. I mean, point of constitutional privilege.

SCARBOROUGH: He's a good-looking man. I've not seen his backside, but

GEIST: I don’t believe the president referred to his physical body, John, from what I saw.

. . .

SCARBOROUGH: So, Willie, while we’re still in your feed, why don’t we go, all the way from Ohio to Alaska, and through the magic of television, we will now go to a campaign rally in Texas where projection was on full display by a man wearing David Bowie’s eyeliner. Go ahead.

GEIST: Well, this is Vice President J.D. Vance on the campaign trail in Texas yesterday.

SCARBOROUGH: [Sings a Ziggy Stardust tune]

GEIST: At a rally in support of Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton.

SCARBOROUGH: Does he really? Why does he? Let me ask you this. Have you ever known a man to wear eyeliner, Willie? Like, we know guys. We've hung out with guys. Have you ever seen in locker rooms, guys like, oh, I’m gonna get the eyeliner. Nothing wrong with it!. If, if that’s your gig, if you’re like Tim Burton playing sweet transvestite in the Rocky Horror Picture Show . . . It’s a strange world. They keep moving the lines. and now it’s all right for guys to be wearing eyeliner and, anyway, projection. Projection central yesterday.

GEIST: Projection, ugliness, middle school jokes and taunts. This is the Vice President of the United States in Texas yesterday, repeatedly making assertions about the Democratic candidate James Talarico and his sexuality.

JD VANCE: Now, before we get started--I love you too, sir. In a totally platonic way. Be clear. I’m the vice president, not James Talarico. Now, the best part about this guy is, you know, he, he was asked what he loved in life, besides his own family and friends, and he responded, without skipping a beat, and I quote, trans children.

Now, you gotta wonder what the internet search history of a man like that looks like. Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t wanna find out. Neither do I.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, well, you also wonder what [JD's] search history looks like.

GEIST: When asked to explain that accusation, of Vance's knowledge, he didn’t know anything about Talarico’s internet activity. He said he was just guessing.

JD VANCE: Well, he’s just a guy who shows a weird focus on transgender kids and drag queens and, you know, I think he, he, he said something to the effect of, an 11-year-old in drag was a great sight, or a very beautiful thing. It's just a lot of weird stuff, and I think, typically, people who say stuff like that tend to have some pretty unusual search histories. Maybe he doesn’t, just guessing.

SCARBOROUGH: That is disgusting. You’re disgusting, because he’s going back to a time, five years ago maybe, six years ago, whatever. He’s going back to a time, I think about the same time that JD Vance was calling Donald Trump Hitler. So, if we want to live in that realm, then, then we can live in that realm and we can talk about all the things JD said in his political past about Donald Trump being a Hitler and how Christians can’t vote for Donald Trump if they’re really Christians. We can talk about that as well.

But even putting all of that aside, we’ve just had the President of the United States obsess over a candidate’s ass.

BRZEZINSKI: Ugh.

SCARBOROUGH: And we just had a vice president, wearing David Bowie’s eyeliner, actually questioning the sexuality of another man. It is, as Donnie said, not Donnie, Heilemann. It’s always either projection or confession.

Let me say, if I were wearing David Bowie’s eyeliner, or if my running mate had been, like, ogling over men’s bodies, I wouldn’t go out the next day and question the sexuality of a man who, who’s, has a girlfriend and, yeah, it’s, it’s really bizarre stuff.

GEIST: Yeah, the morning after --

SCARBOROUGH: -- the morning after!

GEIST: -- the President of the United States gushing over a man's body.

SCARBOROUGH: Butt Gate!

BRZEZINSKI: Oh my God!

GEIST: There's so much there. There's also the fact they don't want to talk about --

SCARBOROUGH: By the way, that's going to be the cover of Time magazine. Trump's going to be on the cover of Time magazine again. It's going to show Jon Husted's butt, and it's going to say on the top, Butt Gate.