MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said Friday that President Joe Biden had “the worst debate performance in modern political history.”
Panicked Democrats reportedly began to consider replacing President Joe Biden on the ballot in November following his performance at the first 2024 presidential debate Thursday evening. Scarborough, whom Axios reported Biden loves to watch and calls to “vent” about media coverage, pulled no punches describing the president’s poor execution.
“What all of us saw last night. The inability to complete sentences. The inability to make easy layups. One after another after another after another. It was the worst debate performance in modern political history,” Scarborough concluded.
Scarborough said that presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would win the 2024 election “unless things change.”
“We’ve been asking, why is this race close? We have no idea why this race is close,” Scarborough said. “We saw last night why this race has been close, and why I fear Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States, unless things change.”
Scarborough lamented that Biden “tragically did not rise to the occasion,” questioning whether the Democratic incumbent is capable of running for reelection. “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed that Biden had a “terrible night.”
If you fear “how dark of a place a second Donald Trump term would take America,” Scarborough remarked, “then I think it’s critical that we ask the same questions about this man I love, respect and whose, whose public service in saving this country from Donald Trump over the last three and a half years I honor and always will. I think we have to ask the same questions of him that we have asked of Donald Trump since 2016. And that is, if he were CEO, and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 corporation in America, keep him on as CEO?”
Scarborough added that he’s “open” to the explanation that Biden was sick. The “Morning Joe” host emphasized, however, that “failure is not an option” for the Democratic Party in the 2024 election. (RELATED: ‘We Beat Medicare’: Biden Freezes Mid-Answer Before Being Bailed Out By Moderator)
Scarborough praised Biden for doing a “great job” with “bipartisan legislation” before calling on the president and his family to reevaluate his reelection bid.
“The question Joe Biden, Jill Biden, the family, friends need to ask themselves are not whether he’s up to the job of being president of the United States, but whether he’s up to the job of defeating Donald Trump. He did that in 2020. History will be kind to him because he saved American democracy and took us through a time when Donald Trump was trying to burn down American democracy, almost literally on January 6th,” Scarborough said. “He continues to lie about January 6th. He continues to lie about so many other things.”
“The question is, though, despite my belief that Joe Biden has had an extremely successful first term, is it time for him to step down?” Scarborough asked. “And that’s a question — that window is not completely closed. But it is closing, and I will say with all due respect, the governor of California, you are not hurting America, you are not hurting the cause of America by asking these tough questions now. You are hurting the cause of America by closing your eyes, putting your head down, saying we’re going to just plow forward regardless of what we saw.”
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whom many have speculated could replace the Democratic president on the ballot, insisted to reporters after the debate that he would “never turn [his] back on President Biden.”
Biden’s aides have paid close attention to “Morning Joe” throughout the Democrat’s presidency in anticipation of potential questions, Axios reported in February. The president has also reportedly “consulted” with the program’s regular guests, including reporter Mike Barnicle, foreign policy analyst Richard Haas and historian John Meacham.
Biden is not yet the Democratic Party’s official nominee. The Democratic National Convention is scheduled from Aug. 19 to Aug. 22 — more than seven weeks after Thursday’s debate.
