MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough went off on President Joe Biden for nearly two minutes straight on Friday over his relative silence when campaigning against former President Donald Trump.
The panel was discussing Biden’s approach to run against Trump, with Charles Brow discussing his latest New York Times op-ed entitled “Dignified Silence Doesn’t Work Against Trump.”
Brow argued in his piece Trump has been able to mount a strong lead in the polls because he has no one with “forceful…condemnation” running against him both on the Democratic and Republican sides. Brow, however, argued that there is “no victory without confrontation.”
Scarborough agreed, arguing Biden himself needs to step up his attacks on Trump or risk losing the race. (RELATED: CNN Political Director Warns Of ‘Troublingly Low’ Approval Ratings, Dangerous Trend For Biden)
“If I am running for office, and I am running against a guy who has stolen nuclear secrets, I’m gonna ‘Hi, my opponent stole nuclear secrets, I’m Joe Scarborough great to talk to ya,’ ‘my opponent stole war plans with Iran, showed them to his political director and then told her ‘I’m not supposed to show this to you, I could declassify them if I were POTUS but I’m not so I can’t declassify it’,'” Scarborough said.
“Listen, these are not normal times and Joe Biden doesn’t have to say ‘I’ve been talking to the Justice Department’ he can say, ‘Listen, I’m not communicating with them, they do their thing, I do my thing, but I can read the newspapers. I can watch TV, and I can tell you the guy I’m running against says when he gets elected he’s gonna tear down the federal government, just like they promised to do last time, he said he’s gonna arrest people, he said he’s going to suspend the Constitution, he’s already stolen nuclear secrets, let’s see, what else do you want to know about my opponent?'”
“I mean, I do agree with Charles, how do you run against a guy who stole nuclear secrets and say to people, ‘Here’s your choice, me or the guy that stole nuclear secrets, the guy who said the second he becomes president he’s going to start arresting people and that guy right there that also said he would terminate the Constitution.’ How do you not say that?”
“We are not playing by Marcus of Queensbury rules anymore. We’re fighting for the very survival of American democracy,” Scarborough said.
Biden faces a difficult race as a recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS found 46% of voters say any Republican presidential nominee would be preferred over Biden. Among those polled, 58% say Biden’s policies have worsened economic conditions and 70% say things in the nation are going badly.
Meanwhile, a Wall Street Journal poll found Trump leading Biden by 11 points on the question of who has a better record. Trump also led Biden by 10 points in perceived mental fitness to hold office.