On the April 4 edition of Morning Joe, co-hosts Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist discussed Thomas Beatie, a pregnant transgender man, and his April 3 appearance on Oprah, during which Scarborough said, “I'm not going to look at this,” and Brzezinski said: “I'm going to be sick. I am going to be sick.” Scarborough also asked, “What are you doing to me?” before going on to suggest that the father was alternately a “parrot” and "[a] former aide of [former New Jersey Gov.] Jim McGreevey." Later Scarborough said: “Please, let's move on. I really do feel sick.”

Salon.com's Thomas Rogers highlighted the panelists' comments, calling them “profoundly appalling” in an April 7 post.

When Brzezinski asked who the baby's father is, if Beatie is the mother, Scarborough said: “The parrot at the pet shop.” After Geist explained that the sperm came “from another place,” Scarborough said, “A former aide of Jim McGreevey.”

As the panel continued discussing Beatie's pregnancy, Scarborough again brought up McGreevey and asked: “Are the McGreeveys involved in this in any way?”

The panel discussed Beatie's pregnancy again in a later segment, during which Scarborough referred to an April 4 New York Post article on Beatie as being about "[t]his dude having a baby with ... a parrot that perhaps came from the McGreeveys."

From the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

GEIST: It's not every day you meet a couple expecting a baby --

BRZEZINSKI: Aw.

SCARBOROUGH: Ooh. Can I avert the next --

GEIST: -- where it's the man who's pregnant.

SCARBOROUGH: Oh, wait.

BRZEZINSKI: What did you just say?

SCARBOROUGH: I'm closing my eyes. I'm not going to look at this.

GEIST: Thomas Beatie, 34-year-old transgender man, used to be a woman --

SCARBOROUGH: Tell me when it's over, Mika.

GEIST: -- from Oregon, and he is six months pregnant. See, the deal is, when she had the surgery --

BRZEZINSKI: I don't want to know the deal.

SCARBOROUGH: I'm not looking.

GEIST: She kept -- became a man, but kept the parts -- the female parts.

BRZEZINSKI: Willie, you are topping the list of “News You Can't Use.” And why Oprah would do this --

GEIST: He was on Oprah yesterday. We saw this story actually a couple of weeks ago. We thought it might be a hoax, so we didn't use it, but --

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.

GEIST: -- Oprah has legitimized it. And it gets worse.

BRZEZINSKI: What?

GEIST: You're not only going to want to cover your eyes, but now your ears, when you hear --

BRZEZINSKI: I don't want to hear.

GEIST: -- from the man's wife --

BRZEZINSKI: No.

GEIST: -- how this all came to pass.

BRZEZINSKI: What?

[begin video clip]

NANCY BEATIE (Thomas Beatie's wife): I went to the vet --

OPRAH WINFREY: Mm-hmm.

N. BEATIE: -- and -- because we have some birds at home --

WINFREY: Mm-hmm.

N. BEATIE: -- and I asked for a syringe, you know, without a needle --

WINFREY: Mm-hmm.

N. BEATIE: -- and they gave us one, and got our container of sperm.

T. BEATIE: It's a very delicate procedure, it can't be exposed to air for too long, and you have --

WINFREY: Oh, really?

T. BEATIE: -- to kind of pipe it into the syringe.

[end video clip]

BRZEZINSKI: I'm going to be sick. I am going to be sick.

SCARBOROUGH: Ugh, God, what are you doing?

BRZEZINSKI: Hold on a second -- I'm still confused.

SCARBOROUGH: What are you doing?

GEIST: Go ahead.

SCARBOROUGH: What are you doing to me?

BRZEZINSKI: I --

GEIST: I have all the facts. What would you like to know?

BRZEZINSKI: I'm confused. I want to know --

SCARBOROUGH: The facts?

GEIST: Let's dig into this a little bit.

SCARBOROUGH: We don't want the facts.

BRZEZINSKI: No, but if he's -- if he's the mother --

SCARBOROUGH: I can't handle the facts.

BRZEZINSKI: Wait. If he's the mother, who's the father?

GEIST: It came --

SCARBOROUGH: The parrot at the pet shop.

GEIST: No, it came from another place.

BRZEZINSKI: Ugh, God!

SCARBOROUGH: A former aide of Jim McGreevey.

BRZEZINSKI: Stop it.

GEIST: I -- it's the part about going to the vet that really gets my goat.

SCARBOROUGH: I just -- [laughs] -- that “gets my goat”?

BRZEZINSKI: You know what?

SCARBOROUGH: Please, let's move on.

BRZEZINSKI: Willie?

SCARBOROUGH: I really do feel sick.

GEIST: Well here's --

BRZEZINSKI: This is, like, the most disgust, I just --

GEIST: -- front page of the New York Post today. There's the parrot, Joe.

SCARBOROUGH: There is a parrot.

BRZEZINSKI: Oh, yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: Fresh from the parrot.

BRZEZINSKI: “Pregnant man's baby joy” --

GEIST: Come on, they're happy.

BRZEZINSKI: I am upset.

GEIST: Happiness comes in different shapes and sizes.

SCARBOROUGH: Are the McGreeveys involved in this in any way?

BRZEZINSKI: Will you be quiet? Now, why do you -- I mean, it's bad enough.

SCARBOROUGH: Naw, I'm just curious.

GEIST: Leave my former governor out of this, OK?

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. They've got triple problems, or whatever.

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, it seems like your former governor [inaudible].

BRZEZINSKI: All right, well, Willie, that was --

GEIST: We'll be sure to revisit that in the next hour.

SCARBOROUGH: Let's not.

GEIST: -- just to get a little more --

BRZEZINSKI: That was not only stupid and useless --

GEIST: -- little more comprehensive.

BRZEZINSKI: -- but quite frankly, disgusting.

GEIST: Maybe to you. I find it beautiful to bring a new life into the world. All right, here's a story that I'm going to apologize for in advance for this --

SCARBOROUGH: Oh my God. Is it worse than that?

GEIST: -- brought to my attention by one of our producers --

BRZEZINSKI: It can't be worse.

[...]

SCARBOROUGH: This is an interesting story you picked out earlier this morning --

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: It's The Wall Street Journal talking about the future of newsmagazines.

BRZEZINSKI: Uh-huh. Yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: And of course, the story on the New York Post --

BRZEZINSKI: I don't want to see this, actually.

SCARBOROUGH: -- that Willie Geist is very interested in.

BRZEZINSKI: Why, Willie?

SCARBOROUGH: This dude having a baby with --

GEIST: Hits close to home.

SCARBOROUGH: It does hit close to home. With a parrot that perhaps came from the McGreeveys.

BRZEZINSKI: What?

SCARBOROUGH: We'll check into that later.

BRZEZINSKI: You know --