‘So Preposterous. It’s Laughable!’ Scarborough Fumes at Brutal Poll On Trump vs. Biden Mental Fitness

MSNBC’s polling guru Steve Kornacki joined Morning Joe on Monday to dig through the latest NBC News poll on the 2024 presidential election and unleashed a torrent of bad news for President Joe Biden.

“Yeah, well, look, I think it lays out the challenges at the start of his reelection year that President Biden faces in some of the headwinds, at least for now, that he is running into. Let’s just start with the bottom line number. We matched up Trump versus Biden. General election, who would you vote for? Donald Trump in our new NBC News poll, 47%, Joe Biden, 42%,” Kornaki began adding:

The last time we were in the field was back in November. Trump was up two. Then it’s expanded to five in our poll since then. Broaden the lens on this, and I think a story becomes pretty clear and significant.

This is the entire history going back five years of NBC polling of Trump versus Biden. Two things stand out here. This is the 2020 cycle, starting in late 2019, going all the way to election eve in 2020, you noticed that Joe Biden led every single one of our polls against Donald Trump in the 2020 cycle. Six was as close as it got, 14 was as big as it got.

The range was always in there. And that’s basically what every national poll from every outlet was showing in 2019 and 2020. Now you fast forward to this cycle. Look, we had Biden up in June. We had a tie in September. Trump, for the very first time, led in our poll in November and has expanded it to five in our most recent poll. So the difference, the political atmosphere, the polling atmosphere, significantly different in our poll and really in every major poll out there compared to last time around versus this time around.

Kornacki then pivoted to put Biden’s low approval rating into historical context, noting, “So there’s that obviously a big thing driving this Biden decline even since last summer. It’s simply this his approval rating in our poll clocks in at 37%. That is his low in our poll. That’s the lowest a president has checked in in an NBC poll since the final days of the George W Bush administration in 2008.”

“The disapproval rating, also an all-time high in our poll for Biden at 60%. Again, zoom out on this one. Put it in perspective. This, these are the incumbents this century to seek reelection,” he continued, delivering more bad news for Biden:

Where was their approval rating in our poll at the start of their reelection year? Bush oh, for one, he started at 54%. Barack Obama started at 49%. In 2012. He won. Donald Trump was 46%. Started 2020. He lost Joe Biden. Look at that number. It stands out 37%, markedly different. Only two incumbent presidents seeking reelection have had approval ratings at this level or below in their reelection year. They were George H.W. Bush in 1992 and Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Notably, both George H.W. Bush and Carter lost reelection. Kornacki then ran through how Trump and Biden polled on specific issues, with Trump running the table.

“Also, there’s this, we asked does the candidate, have the necessary mental or physical health. And here the comparison is striking,” Kornacki continued, adding:

We asked the question 2020 when Trump and Biden ran against each other. It’s about the same. You ask it now and look at that 2 to 1 Trump over Biden. And I think for the Biden folks, the next one is probably the most concerning. We ask this question, is the candidate competent and effective to be president? And, look, this was Biden’s big advantage in 2020. He led Trump on this question by nine points in our poll in 2020. Trump now leads Biden in our poll by 16 points on this number. That’s simple, competent and effective as president. That hurt Trump four years ago and probably cost him the election. It’s helping him now in our poll.

Host Joe Scarborough, who could be heard grumbling as Kornacki ran through the numbers, responded, “Well, you know, Steve, there are a lot of numbers in here that are shocking to a lot of our viewers.”

“I’ll just say right here, a lot of them are shocking to me. I mean, outrageous if you look at people saying that what Donald Trump has necessary mental and physical health, and, and who is the greatest, who’s best for America across the globe. And even who’s best at protecting democracy. That’s a draw. I mean, everything cutting again, which again for me is is is so preposterous. It’s laughable!” he concluded before asking Kornacki some questions.

Watch the clip above.