Joe Scarborough is a master of false modesty. His typical shtick is to describe himself as "a simple country lawyer."
In a variation on that, last week we caught faux-humble Scarborough saying, "I'm not good at this politics thing."
But given the gaffe Scarborough committed on Wednesday's Morning Joe, perhaps Joe wasn't speaking with false modesty at all— but simply telling the truth about his paucity of political skill.
For the second day in a row, Scarborough went on a rant, criticizing the Biden campaign for not attacking Trump harder. With all of the indictments and civil suits, Scarbrough insisted "it all needs to be boiled down and put out to voters. And we can't expect federal judges to do it, or state judges to do it, or anybody else to do it but the Biden campaign! The question is, are they able to do that? Do they have the ability to punch back?"
On Tuesday, we caught Scarborough ripping the Biden campaign for not pushing back on the Republican effort to paint Biden as "too old." Scarborough demanded that the Biden campaign fight fire with fire, and offered a number of examples of verbal stumbles made by Trump.
Questioning the competency of the Biden campaign, at one point Scarborough said:
"His campaign operation, I don't know if everybody is over 80 in his campaign operation, but his campaign operation, they need to put stuff out that makes people go, every morning, oh my God, did you see what the Bush -- what the Biden -- campaign put out yesterday? We never say that!"
The screencap shows the shocked reaction of Democrat operative Jen Palmieri. She obviously realized what a terrible gaffe Scarborough had made: if people over 80 aren't competent to run a campaign, then surely that's so in spades for people over 80—like Joe Biden—running a country!
And wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski, reacting with what looked like an abashed, close-eyed, smile, also seemed to get the negative implications for Biden in Scarborough's line about 80-year-olds being too old for campaign work.
That wasn't the only stumble in Scarborough's statement today. As mentioned, yesterday he went on at length about Trump getting Jeb and W confused. Today, as you see, Scarborough, if only briefly, himself confused Bush and Biden. Whoops!
Joe Scarborough suggesting that people over 80 are too old to run a political campaign,apparently oblivious to the implications for Joe Biden running a country, was sponsored in part by Meta/Facebook, ADT, Google, Amazon, and Etsy.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
9/27/23
6:15 am EDTJOE SCARBOROUGH: So, listen, let's talk about, though, the fact that, again, what should the Biden campaign do?
I'm not saying the president should do it. But, you know what, a judge, Jen, has found this guy guilty of fraud. Another judge in New York State said he raped E. Jean Carroll, the jury found him guilty of, of, of sexual assault. A jury found him liable of defamation. That's what we already know. It's already come down the pipe.
You have, of course, in, in the United States case against Donald Trump for stealing nuclear secrets, for stealing war plans against Iran. You got in the state of Georgia, another state run by Republicans! You've got him up, and 20 of his associates up for trying to steal an election there.
All of this adds up but it all needs to be boiled down and put out to voters. And we can't expect federal judges to do it, or state judges to do it, or anybody else to do it but the Biden campaign!
The question is, are they able to do that? Do they have the ability to punch back?
JENNIFER PALMIERI: Sure. I mean, look what they did in 2020. And tomorrow the president is giving a speech -- is it tomorrow? Right, yes. It's Wednesday, right? Thursday he's giving a speech in Arizona that's billed as a democracy speech, you know, to respond to the Republican debate tonight, and then also looming shutdown, and democracy not working.
And I think they're really good at this. I think the question is, and the UAW thing yesterday is a good example of, of the sort of, of the choices that they have to make. If the president had gone into Michigan and all he had done is attack Trump, there are workers -- you know, a lot of UAW workers are probably going to vote for Donald Trump, or certainly voted for him in 2020 and '16. Joe Biden has a really good argument to make with that.
SCARBOROUGH: Joe Biden is really good. He can do two things at once!
PALMIERI: You can do two things at once, but I think --
SCARBOROUGH: Isn't it, isn't it even more effective to have him with a bullhorn doing that on the picket lines, while his campaign is unleashing one video after another video after another video just pummeling Donald Trump's, uh, uh, uh, uh legal woes? One after another.
The Trump people are doing it! They're paying third parties to viciously attack Ron DeSantis, to use AI technology to attack Ron DeSantis. They're doing it around the clock!
You would think the White House would be able to do two things at once! John Fetterman did it when he ran in the Senate. That's what the President the United States should be doing.
But his campaign operation, I don't know if everybody is over 80 in his campaign operation, but his campaign operation, they need to put stuff out that makes people go, every morning, oh my God, did you see what the Bush -- what the Biden -- campaign put out yesterday? We never say that!
