‘I Was Obviously Wrong!’ Joe Scarborough Admits to Jake Tapper His Biden ‘At His Best’ Remark Was a Mistake
The spirited discussion over the mental acuity of President Joe Biden on the set of Morning Joe got to the essence of the debate when Original Sin co-author and CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked the MSNBC contributors if anyone at the table felt that Biden was up for serving as president through a second term in 2029. It then elicited a rare thing in cable news: a host openly admitting he was wrong.
Co-author Alex Thompson joined Tapper to promote their book that alleges to uncover a cover-up of senior White House aides that aimed to conceal a mental decline from not just the public but from senior Democratic officials, a decline that was readily apparent to many but also the lead story of many conservative-leaning cable news shows.
During the 2024 campaign, the influential Morning Joe led the defense of Biden’s ability. Scarborough notably insisted in April of 2024 that this is the “best” version of Biden he’s ever seen. That video went viral, as Scarborough said:
No, I just always told people that he’s — the president is very sharp. If you say something or write something, there have been times he’s called and he’s refuted it very sharply. I’ve talked to foreign leaders that have had conversations with him that said that he was on top of every issue, and to the degree that they were actually — some NATO leaders have told me they were very surprised, the contrast with the image in public and the Joe Biden behind closed doors, because he is so sharp. But he’s on top of everything. So much of it has to do with presentation. I will say, also, for any Trumpers who say, ‘Oh my god, they’re talking about how he may need to take a rest once in a while.’ Please, you’re talking about Donald Trump who did nothing but sit in his office and watch cable news all day, the executive time when we like to get — well, I’m sure we could go to Mar-a-Lago, he probably has them shoved in drawers, all of his stuff.
While a national discussion over Biden’s candidacy, health, and White House transparency has unfolded, MSNBC has largely been absent, partly because many of its top personalities also ran interference for claims of Biden’s decline. As I wrote in a column Tuesday, some on-air talent at the progressive network are likely motivated to ignore the story for fear that covering it reveals some complicity.
So the Shakespearean context of this political media and intranetwork appearance was palpably awkward, with co-host Mika Brzezinski barely holding back at her contempt and opening the interview by insisting that Tapper and Thompson agree that Biden’s time in office was not just “successful” but also “historic.” Tapper refused to take the bait and insisted his book was not intended to lay a verdict on the Biden administration.
After a significant amount of bobbing and weaving — or feeling each other out in boxing terms — Tapper finally cut to the chase and asked his hosts, “Why were the, why was there so little incentive for anybody to say anything about, I don’t know, that this guy is up for the job at the very least of running for reelection, not to mention, can he be president in January, 2029? Is anybody at this table thinking he could be functioning president until January 2029?”
Scarborough was the only one to answer with a short “no” but in a manner that seemed less like a response to the question and more like a stop sign to that line of questioning, perhaps because none of the MSNBC employees at the table wanted to openly answer for fear of angering their audience.
But it did get Scarborough to launch into a story about his trip to Ireland with President Biden and talk about how he couldn’t keep up with the president’s busy schedule on that diplomatic trip, which led to a notable admission of fault.
“I said that this was Biden that is at his best — that’s what I saw,” Scaborough admitted. “I was obviously wrong, so I’m not sure what my takeaway is than next time, but if you’re around a guy for hours and hours and hours.” He then tried to throw the ball back at Tapper, saying, “I guess the question is. What’s the takeaway here? What did you learn? Did you pick it up in real time?”
Tapper acknowledged that he saw what everyone saw in real time, adding “If there are two Joe Bidens, there’s the one that you saw that you just described, and then there’s the one who’s non-functioning, like what we say at the debate night, can’t follow his train of thought, can’t come up with names, can’t remember dates, what you listen to in the Hur Report, or he’s unsure of when his son deployed, unsure when his son died, tragic stuff, but he really honestly doesn’t know those dates.“
Tapper then returned the volley by reporting that Scarborough saw only the best Biden because the former president was a loyal viewer of Morning Joe, well aware of discussions about his run for reelection, and told staffers, behind the scenes, he wanted to convince him he could serve.
Tapper said:
Now, one thing in your specific case, Joe, our reporting indicates that Joe Biden, who, as you know, is a frequent viewer of the show, saw when David Ignatius wrote that column in, I think, August 2023, saying that Joe Biden should not run for re-election because of what he had been hearing. And he came on this show and you guys had a robust conversation about this you largely agreed that you’d been hearing things about this but that there was really no alternative, that Kamala Harris was not up to the job that’s what Democrats were telling you behind the scenes. Joe Biden saw that — Joe Biden said to staffers that he wanted to convince you that you were wrong and he focused on you like you were a constituency like you are farmers in Iowa, like you were the Kiwanis club in New Hampshire, and he made sure that you thought differently. He made sure that you saw differently. I think he did this with a couple people. I think you did it with me chum he might have done it with Evan Osnos he knew that there were people that had to be convinced that he was fine. And he tried to prove that to you.
Watch above via MSNBC.
