Mika Brzezinski controversy 'extremely troubling', Ric Grenell says
Ric Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany who criticized MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski for using a homophobic remark to describe Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, granted a little more leniency to her on Saturday.
“I’m very glad that she did a sincere apology,” he said during an interview with FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto. “I think now we can move on.”
Brzezinski came under fire when, on air, she disparaged Pompeo as a “wannabe dictator’s butt boy,” referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Earlier in the week, Pompeo dodged a question about the prince’s role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post and a critic of the Saudi government.
“Why doesn’t Mike Pompeo care right now? Are the pathetic deflections that we just heard when he appeared on ‘Fox & Friends’ - is that a patriot speaking?” Brzezinski said. “Or a wannabe dictator’s butt boy? I’m dead serious. I’m asking: Are these the words of a patriot?”The network reportedly tried to bleep out the remark, but was too slow.
On Wednesday, Grenell, who is openly gay, urged Brzezinski to apologize more directly to the LGBTQ community. He called the remarks “extremely troubling” to the secretary of state, and to the gay community.
She has since said those words were wrong and vulgar, tweeting immediately after that it was a “terrible choice of words.”
“My father would have found it so unbecoming and disrespectful and he would have told me,” she said. “I will work hard to be better.”
Grenell lauded her for the apology.
“I’m glad that after two days, she did come out and she made a very sincere apology. We are all human, we all make mistakes...I think now we can move on.”
