Morning Joe laughed at Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s comments about Social Security, calling his ramblings “crazy.”
Lutnick said during a Thursday appearance on the All-In podcast that the only people upset about DOGE head Elon Musk targeting Social Security are fraudsters abusing the system. He then added that his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn’t be worried if she didn’t receive her check.
Lutnick, who was nominated to the role by President Donald Trump, is a billionaire Wall Street CEO—a fact that wasn’t lost on Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough on Monday’s show.
“I mean, his mother wouldn’t complain because she’s got a billionaire for a son,” the host said after playing a clip of Lutnick’s comments. “Hey, son, my $364 didn’t come in this past month...” he quipped, before breaking down into a fit of laughter.
The Daily Beast reported Friday, citing public records, that Lutnick’s mother-in-law, Geri Lambert, 94, appears to live with him and his wife in their Upper East Side townhouse in Manhattan.
Regaining his composure, Scarborough suggested that Lutnick’s comments coupled with Musk’s actions could become fodder for a withering Democratic Party response. “He’s like running the Commerce Department and you’ve got the world’s richest man on the planet that’s going around again firing vets, slashing VA healthcare,” the host said, referencing Musk.
“[Musk is] saying that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, you know, I’m usually skeptical when people say that campaign ads write themselves, but my God. As I said before, if the Democrats can’t do something with this, they should get into the used car selling business.”
MSNBC contributor—and former Daily Beast politics editor—Sam Stein added that the party should “disband” if they can’t “make anything out of this.”
“You should just give up. Honestly, when I saw it, I had to do a double take and I rewound it because I couldn’t believe he said it. I’ve never heard such a disorienting statement politically in 17, 18 years. It’s crazy,” he said of Lutnick’s comments.
Scarborough, done laughing, decried the “callousness” of the statement from the commerce secretary.
Earlier this month, Musk signaled his intention to set his DOGE goons on the Social Security system.
