MS NOW's Morning Joe descended into juvenile innuendo on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, as host Joe Scarborough repeatedly mocked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over U.S. policy on the Strait of Hormuz by hammering the homophone “strait/straight.”
In a segment criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of the Iran conflict, Scarborough launched into a repetitive riff while adopting his signature faux-folksy persona:
“You know, Lindsey goes, ‘It’s all about the Strait. Everything’s about the Strait. We’re doing this, it’s all about the Strait. Say it’s all about the Strait.’”
Scarborough framed the mockery as simple common sense, calling himself a “simple man with simple tastes” and a “simple country lawyer” before lamenting the war’s costs and questioning the goal of restoring pre-war conditions in the Strait.
Joe Scarborough on Lindsey Graham today: “It’s all about the strait… everything’s about the strait… It’s all about the strait. Say it’s all about the strait.”
— Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) May 6, 2026
Just weeks after a Dem Senate challenger ran a gay-baiting ad against Graham. MS NOW “journalism,” ladies and… pic.twitter.com/uPorZNuhUH
This isn’t Scarborough’s first time using this kind of Beavis & Butthead personal innuendo against Graham. In 2023, he joked that he “can’t [talk about Graham] with a straight face.”
The timing and phrasing of Scarborough's latest shot are hard to dismiss as coincidence. Just weeks earlier, Dr. Annie Andrews — a Democratic candidate challenging Graham in South Carolina’s 2026 Senate race — released a gay-baiting campaign ad packed with sexual double entendres. The ad, titled “Lindsey Graham has a secret,” highlighted Graham quotes like “on its knees,” “gonna blow,” and “going down,” overlaying suggestive text while hinting at rumors about his personal life.
Even some on the left criticized Andrews’ ad as homophobic “dog whistles.” Yet Scarborough appeared to amplify the same trope on national television under the guise of foreign policy commentary.
This episode highlights a pattern: When MS NOW hosts run out of substantive policy critiques, they resort to personal sexual mockery — especially against conservative figures. Real debate over the Strait of Hormuz, freedom of navigation, and U.S. strategy in the Middle East deserves better than Scarborough's middle-school-level snark.
Here's the transcript.
MS NOW
Morning Joe
5/6/26
5:39 am EDTMARCO RUBIO: Our preference is for these straits to be opened to the way they're supposed to be opened, back to the way it was. Anyone can use it, no mines in the water, nobody paying tolls. That's what we have to get back to, and that's the goal here.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: All right. So what does success look like in this war? Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday at the White House telling reporters, "The administration's goal with the Strait of Hormuz is to get it back to the way it was before the war started." President Trump, meanwhile, has paused Project Freedom, his plan to escort ships through the waterway. We're gonna bring you the latest on the conflict as it moves closer to the ten week mark. It's so confusing.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. Wait. No, this is so confusing and Willie, I'm a simple man with simple tastes, but, simple understandings of basic things, but, you had the Secretary of Defense yesterday saying they're going to escort ships through the Strait, then you had Marco coming on, the Secretary of State saying they're going to do the same thing.
And then, the president last night on social media changed his mind and now everybody's saying the war is over.
. . .
Right now, we've got some ships sunk and a partridge in a pear tree, and that's about it, Willie, and they're ready to declare victory and come home.
And this is—not the funniest part, I guess the most tragic part—we've spent two hundred and fifty billion dollars, maybe three hundred billion dollars on this war, and all Marco Rubio wants, all Lindsey Graham wants is, guys, let's just get things back to the way they were before the war started. Let's just have the strait.
You know, Lindsey goes, "It's all about the Strait, everything's about the Strait. We're doing this, it's all about the Strait. Say it's all about the Strait."
Well, okay, well, all about getting it back to how it was before we launched a war that killed a lot of Iranians? And separated us from our allies, and cost over two hundred and fifty billion of taxpayers' dollars when they're struggling to put gas in their car.
I mean, really? I don't know, I'm a simple country lawyer, that doesn't seem like too much of a success to me.
