During a Saturday broadcast of 'The Weekend: Primetime' on MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, co-host Antonia Hylton criticized the language used by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to describe Iran and its proxies. Hylton described the rhetoric as arrogant and racist, accusing it of portraying Iranians as savages and subhuman. The segment highlighted concerns over messaging amid ongoing U.S. military action against the Iranian regime.
On Saturday, MS NOW aired a segment where co-host Antonia Hylton expressed disturbance over the Trump administration's description of its opponent in recent military actions against Iran. 'The other piece of this that I found really disturbing in the messaging around the war recently... is some of the language in the description of their opponent,' Hylton said. She continued, 'Sort of the way they seem to create this image of the Iranians and all of their sort of proxies or allies... And I think that it takes a certain amount of arrogance and I’m also going to say it, a bit of racism, to constantly talk about people like they are savages. That is a word that we have heard Hegseth use. [They] talk about people as though they are subhuman, too stupid to engage in a war with the United States, incapable of possibly out-maneuvering us.' Hylton addressed her co-host Ayman during the broadcast of 'The Weekend: Primetime.' The Iranian regime has a history of actions against Americans since the 1979 Islamic takeover, including the killing of 258 Americans in 1983 bombings at the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon; 19 U.S. Airmen by Iran-backed Hezbollah at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996; nearly 700 by Iranian proxies during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; and nearly 50 by Iranian-backed Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. This totals more than 1,000 American deaths, military and civilian. The criticism comes amid a broader U.S.-Iran conflict, where Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, spiking oil prices, and recent U.S. losses include six service members killed in a March 12 KC-135 crash over western Iraq. President Trump has criticized media coverage of the war, while FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened broadcaster licenses over alleged 'hoaxes and news distortions.' Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on Sunday that Iran has not requested a ceasefire.
