Methinks Scarborough doth protest too much.
On Wednesday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough, speaking of Joe Biden, insisted, "I'm not doing his bidding. I'm just telling you the truth." And the truth, according to Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, is that Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders would be weak candidates, whereas Biden would have the best chance of defeating President Trump.
Mika led off the hit parade, attacking Bloomberg by fretting that by nominating him, "we would be setting ourselves up for the same problem" Democrats had with Hillary. Namely, that Bloomberg's vulnerabilities on women, money, etc. would cancel out his ability to attack President Trump on those same issues. There would be no "contrast" between Bloomberg and Trump, insisted Mika.
Scarborough then grabbed the cudgel, going after Sanders by claiming that Democrats would "bleed out" in the suburbs if they nominated a socialist. Nice metaphor, Joe! This is why Bernie is running around saying Fox is better for him that "MSDNC."
Finally, Scarborough made the case that Biden was best positioned to defeat President Trump. Scarborough pointed to a poll showing Biden, among the Democrat contenders, with the largest lead against Trump in the swing states. That's when Scarborough insisted that he was not doing Biden's bidding: "I'm just telling you the truth."
If Biden were ever to run the table, somehow winning the nomination and defeating Trump, he's going to need a press secretary, right, Joe? Never too early to audition!
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
2/19/20
6:11 am ETMIKA BRZEZINSKI: If you can look who can go against Trump, Biden wins, right? He's at the top of the polls.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Right. Easily.
MIKA: Biden provides a contrast.
SCARBOROUGH: Right.
MIKA: Bloomberg, one could argue, is just like Hillary Clinton. Where in some key areas: women, big money, entitlement to this whole thing, they cancel each other out. I'm just saying, are we setting ourselves up for the same problem?
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: Well we hear all the time that Bernie Sanders is not Jeremy Corbyn. I know there are differences . . . I don't see how Democrats do anything but bleed out their new-found support in the suburbs when they put a socialist at the top of the ticket. I could be wrong! I don't think I am.
. . .
You have Joe Biden easily beating Trump in those swing states.
MIKA: Yeah!
SCARBOROUGH: And that's where the election is going to be held.
MIKA: That's the decision --
SCARBOROUGH: It's very telling, Mika, that at Donald Trump's best, and Joe Biden's worst, Joe Biden still easily beats Donald Trump in the only states --
MIKA: I'm telling you: it's the contrast!
SCARBOROUGH: the only states that matter. It's also geography. This guy's from Scranton, Pennsylvania. And I'm not doing his bidding, I'm just telling you the truth. He's from Scranton, Pennsylvania. He spent his entire life connecting with the industrial Midwest. That's why Joe Biden is doing so much better in the swing states than anybody else.
