Morning Joe Insists Trump Wants Iran to Bomb LA, Claims Media Is Biased in Trump’s Direction

Nicholas Spinnato
October 6th, 2026 12:20 PM

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On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, the premier liberal morning show led off with a clip from a Trump rally in Nebraska and insisted Trump called for Iran to bomb Los Angeles and San Diego. Ignoring the context of the clip, hosts Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist called for impeachment. Later, Scarborough even insisted that some of the media not covering the out-of-context “take out” clip was evidence of media bias in Trump’s favor, as he mocked those who claim there is media bias against Republicans.

Host Mika Brzezinski introduced the topic, first mentioning the actual seeming context on Trump rally speech, gas prices, before she turned to claim Trump was “calling for Iran to attack two of the most populous cities in the United States.”

Scarborough then began his rant and claimed some will say Trump was “just joking,” and said, “Well, great, tell me then, please, what other American president in our history, post-Civil War, have called for the destruction of entire cities.”

 

 

In more insistence on what Trump actually said, Scarborough continued:

We're talking about the President of the United States talking about the obliteration of San Diego and Los Angeles as a joke. That's what I've already heard this morning. ‘Oh, he was just joking. You people just don't get it.’

No, I don't get when the president of the United States says Iran can obliterate Los Angeles and San Diego. Not funny if you're an American who actually believes that presidents should do more than divide us.

Willie Geist, co-host of Morning Joe and host of NBC’s Sunday Today, chimed in and had his own political reading of the “joke”:

Embedded in the alleged joke is, ‘Well, California is blue. Those are lefties, so let them bomb LA and San Diego. We got to protect Omaha and the places I care about.’ That's not the voice, obviously, of an American president.

Geist then said, “And as you say, Joe, it goes without saying that if any other president, especially a Democrat, let's say Barack Obama, for example, or Joe Biden made that joke, there would be outrage across the board and maybe calls for impeachment.”

Scarborough built on Geist's impeachment mention and compared the comments to a Democrat president calling for the “obliteration” of “Jacksonville or Birmingham.”

After more ranting, Scarborough added, “I think actually what it suggests, folks, is just how low this president has taken himself and his party after ten years in American politics, that people in that audience laughed at the prospects of 10 million or so other Americans being wiped off the face of the Earth by a nuke from Iran.”

For context, during a Trump rally yesterday, an account called ‘Headquarters’ on X, formerly known as ‘KamalaHQ,’ added a caption to the clip that said: “Trump On Iran: Let ‘em take out Los Angeles and San Diego, It’s a small price to pay.”

Even CNN’s fact-checker, Daniel Dale, said the claim was out of context: “This isn’t a direct quote from Trump, and I very much don’t think it’s a correct paraphrase.” 

 

 

Later, the show’s second hour also led with the same topic, and Scarborough insisted the story was actually evidence the media was biased in Trump’s direction.

He started by mocking those who claim there is media bias against Trump and republicans, before he noted the only major national newspaper to have a story alike to his framing was the New York Times.

Scarborough then made his big media bias claim and said, “But he's graded on such a curve that the bias actually breaks the other way. He gets away with things that no other president would ever get away with, because people in the media are so numbed by it all by now. So, media bias? Yeah, media bias in a way that breaks his direction.”

Leave it up to Morning Joe to be hysterical about anything Trump says and claim the media is actually biased towards Trump in the process.

The transcript is below. Click "expand":

MS NOW’s Morning Joe

October 6, 2026

6:01:10 AM Eastern

(...)

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: President Trump last night in Nebraska, again, trying to justify the higher prices Americans are paying for fuel and other goods, while also just casually calling for Iran to attack two of the most populous cities in the United States, Joe?

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, you know, there will be some, ‘Oh, he's just joking.’ Well, okay. Well, great, tell me then, please, what other American president in our history, post-Civil War, have called for the destruction of entire cities. Joking, if this is your joke - this is your idea of a presidential joke, joking about the killing of 10 million or so people. 

Is that where we are, because I thought it was bad enough when he was joking in front of California Republicans several years ago, I think it was in ‘22, about an elderly man getting the hell beaten out of him and almost dying. Paul Pelosi, remember, and he led those California - And they were just laughing their off, thinking, that's just the funniest thing in the world. Talking about the brutalization and killing of a man who, by the way, a lot of people on the MAGA Right spent about a week suggesting, you know, drumming up rumors about Paul Pelosi, the man who was the victim of it. So, I thought that was pretty bad. Willie, when you're joking about the battering of the abusing of an elderly man, almost killing an elderly man.

I've got to say, the president of the United States, we're not talking about Henry Youngman here. We're not talking about – We're talking about the President of the United States talking about the obliteration of San Diego and Los Angeles as a joke. That's what I've already heard this morning. ‘Oh, he was just joking. You people just don't get it.’

No, I don't get when the president of the United States says Iran can obliterate Los Angeles and San Diego. Not funny if you're an American who actually believes that presidents should do more than divide us.

WILLIE GIEST: Yeah, and this is sort of the response and the reaction when the president says something like this over the years. Immediately, his team or those who defend him on podcasts or social media say ‘He owned the media, he owned the left because they got upset about the thing he said.’ Well, yeah, there are certain things that you ought to be upset about. And if he was joking, what's the joke? We don't - I mean, I'm happy to if there's a joke in there somewhere, I don't understand what the joke is -

SCARBOROUGH: What’s the joke?

BRZEZINSKI: I don’t think that was a joke

GEIST: - and embedded in the alleged joke is, ‘Well, California is blue. Those are lefties, so let them bomb LA and San Diego. We got to protect Omaha and the places I care about.’ That's not the voice, obviously, of an American president. 

And as you say, Joe, it goes without saying that if any other president, especially a Democrat, let's say Barack Obama, for example, or Joe Biden made that joke, there would be outrage across the board and maybe calls for impeachment.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, of course there would be calls for impeachment, be called for the obliteration of, say, Jacksonville or Birmingham, or if it were a democratic president calling for the obliteration of Republican cities. Of course, there would be immediate calls for impeachment. 

But again, this is what – And by the way, the president, Jonathan Lemire, calling for the destruction of two American cities in the closing run of a critically important midterm election. You do wonder, you do wonder if you're a Republican running in California, do you now go along with the president's joke and say, hey, that's pretty funny. Pretty funny. He's talking about the obliteration of 10 million or so people. What a funny joke that is. He should take his act up to the Catskills after he's finished at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

Do you go along with that joke because you are just that weak of a man, or do you actually stand up and say, ‘You know what, that's really out of line, joking about the killing of 10 million or so Americans.’ 

We'll see what he does. But like I said, they laughed when he talked about Paul Pelosi almost being beaten to death. Now, jokes about the killing – I guess if you're in California, it's funny when you talk about somebody being brutalized or entire cities being wiped from the face of the Earth. That's now a joke. That's now a joke for Donald Trump. I think actually what it suggests, folks, is just how low this president has taken himself and his party after ten years in American politics, that people in that audience laughed at the prospects of 10 million or so other Americans being wiped off the face of the Earth by a nuke from Iran.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: Yeah, there's no bottom here. I mean, President Trump is going to take shots at his political foes, and those often - he just deems them their other Americans. He's never tried to be president of the entire country. He's never tried to be president of blue states and red. We see that from his governing. We see that from his rhetoric. 

And yes, there were laughs in that audience last night. Today there will be, you know, some California Republicans, you know, who are going to be asked about this. And yet again, they're going to be put on the spot as to whether they defend President Trump or not. Odds are they will. They'll say it was a joke. They'll play it off. It's so rare to have a Republican actually defy him. But it's also just another unnecessary distraction. 

And yes, this is - we’ll be on to the next outrage tomorrow, almost certainly. Right. But this is the problem that Trump has created for Republicans, whether it's his policies, because the war in Iran or his tariffs or everything else or what he says. He's giving them nothing to work with, Joe. Nothing. 

And we're now a month from the election. And I've talked to Republicans last week for my piece, a couple more over the weekend, who just say it's almost he's not trying – It's almost as if he's actively hurting our chances, or at the very least, he's doing nothing to help yet another negative distraction for the GOP's chances.

(...)

7:09:53 AM Eastern

SCARBOROUGH: But you said something, Willie, about Donald Trump being graded on a curve. And every time I hear people talking about how biased the media is against Trump - ‘Oh, media bias against Donald Trump. The worst ever.’ - 

Of course, people from Fox News saying that. I think that's cute. But the worst ever! I looked at the New York Times, I looked at the Wall Street Journal, I looked at the Washington Post, I looked at the Financial Times, looked at all the websites this morning to see how many picked them up. Only one, the New York Times.

If any president in American history had called for the obliteration of two American cities, even in what his deranged supporters would say is a joke. Deranged, because if you think it's funny to joke about 10 million Americans being killed by Iran, that's a serious problem. That's a serious problem. 

But he's graded on such a curve that the bias actually breaks the other way. He gets away with things that no other president would ever get away with, because people in the media are so numbed by it all by now. So, media bias? Yeah, media bias in a way that breaks his direction. I mean, you could take his quotes from last night. You can take his quotes from other speeches. You could run together a supercut of all of those clips and ask the same questions about his mental acuity that were asked about Joe Biden's mental acuity. 

And, but that's not happening. And that won't happen. Maybe afterwards people say, ‘Oh, I knew about this all along, and I'm going to write a book about it. Where was the media? Yeah, whatever. Whatever, Trevor. It's not happening.

And it's not happening now because Donald Trump is graded on such a curve that he can say that, you know, he can say - let me get it right - ‘Let them take out LA and San Diego and only one newspaper, national newspaper, reports it. That's a problem.

(...)

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