“Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough ranted for three minutes while repeatedly invoking President Donald Trump in an effort to defend his viral March 2024 claim that former President Joe Biden was “the best Biden ever,” including “intellectually, analytically.”
The clip of Scarborough’s comment became representative of corporate media’s years-long effort to deny Biden’s decline prior to his disastrous June debate against President Donald Trump. Political analyst Mark Halperin asked Scarborough on “Next Up with Mark Halperin” whether he reflects on his comment as being “misleading,” as there were days when Biden was not functioning optimally — but the MSNBC host stood by it.
“I never saw those days personally,” Scarborough asserted.
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However, Halperin pushed back, saying that Scarborough had witnessed Biden’s decline as it was on public display. He noted that Biden publicly seemed to call on the late Republican Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski in September 2022, apparently forgetting that she had perished in a car crash one month earlier.
Scarborough acknowledged Biden “stumbled and bumbled around,” but pivoted to focusing on Trump, saying the president’s name seven times in the span of 30 seconds.
“He stumbled and bumbled around, Mark. I mean, yeah, he certainly did. Donald Trump did,” Scarborough said. “Other politicians did … and it’s actually the same case as a lot of times when I’ve gone in and talked to Donald Trump, gone to Donald Trump, and I’ve heard the media narrative around Donald Trump — and certainly I’ve been very critical of Donald Trump — and when I leave, I have a better understanding, just like [The Atlantic editor-in-chief ] Jeffrey Goldberg did a couple of weeks ago. I have a better understanding of where Donald Trump is mentally — if Donald Trump is losing it, like, you know, people have said through the years or not.”
The MSNBC host also acknowledged viral clips of Biden’s decline were concerning, but insisted his private time he spent with the former president at peak performance was more significant in his mind.
“When I look at that tape, based on what I saw with Biden, based on the time that I spent with Biden, based on the hundreds of hours that I talked to people who talked to Biden and people that worked with Biden and were with him day in and day out — good friends that I know, that I trusted before Biden was president, that I trust now that Biden’s not president — I mean, put into proper context, I’m just not going to freak out and melt down on one or two clips here or there,” Scarborough said. “And again, he bumbled around and he stumbled around, but he has for quite some time. That didn’t seem to me to get in the way of Joe Biden being able to analyze the most important issues. And I certainly think he has a better grasp on it than probably the overwhelming majority of his critics — or certainly did when I spoke with him.”
He also asserted that he has “never” heard internal concerns about Biden being unable to run the government.
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“The only complaints I’ve heard about Biden internally was that he was angry. He would often get angry, and that it was basically his way or the highway,” he said.
Certain Biden cabinet officials felt Biden would not be dependable during a 2 a.m. crisis situation by the last year of his term, CNN reported, based on the new book “Original Sin.” Moreover, Biden could not consistently recall the names of aides and lawmakers by the end of 2022, the New York Post reported, based on the book.
“Original Sin” further reports that cabinet secretaries believe they were intentionally kept away from Biden by his inner circle as part of a wider agenda to hide his decline.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
