Who got to Joe Scarborough?
Last Friday, the very next day after Biden's debate debacle, Scarborough strongly suggested that Biden needed to quit, pronto. Scarborough analogized that just like Goldwater went to Nixon during Watergate and told him it was "over, " Democrats now need to say the same thing to Biden.
Scarborough has now drastically changed his tune. On today's Morning Joe, he stressed that Democrats shouldn't rush into a decision: "it's only July 5th!", he repeatedly exclaimed.
Scarborough even bragged that over the last week, he's been talking many people "off of the ledge." In other words, that while others were panicking and calling on Biden to quit, Scarborough the wise man served as the voice of calm reason, calling on people to "take a deep breath" and not act hastily. Scarborough literally described himself as administering "therapy" to his panicky friends on the left.
Scarborough engaged in some revisionist history in positioning himself as the sage who never suggested Biden immediately quit. Scarborough now claims that last week, he said that "we needed to give it time. Needed to see what's going to happen. " How can we put this politely? That's BS.
Last week, Scarborough said he had "great respect" for former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, who was calling on people to wait three or four days before deciding whether Biden should go. While adding that Plouffe's position made a lot of sense, the next word out of Scarborough's mouth was, "but." He went on to express his fear that Trump would win "unless things change."
Translation: I like Plouffe, but we can't afford to wait. Biden must beat it now!
So back to our opening question: who got to Joe Scarborough? And what leverage did they use on him?
A likely possibility: Scarborough has been bragging about his close access to Biden, even supposedly spending hours at a time with him. Message from the campaign: Joe, if you ever want to get within shouting distance of Biden again, change your tune—now!—on him quitting. We'll be watching today. And Scarborough delivered.
Note: Scarborough said that "Republicans and their far-right allies in the media are accusing the press of a coverup." It's not an accusation. It's a fact that the media, you chief among them, Scarborough, have been covering up Biden's undeniable decline. You're the guy who recently bellowed that "F-you if you can't handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever."
And it's not just the "far-right" who are saying that the liberal media has been engaged in a coverup. Check out this devastating column by Olivia Nuzzi in the decidedly liberal New York magazine: "The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden."
And then there's Scarborough's formerly frequent Morning Joe guest, Mark Halperin, who now opines for Newsmax. He recently wrote: "The conspiracy of silence between Team Biden and the Dominant Media about the acuity decline will be a remarkable story in the history books if Donald Trump wins (and, really, even if Biden wins, but in a very different way)."
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/5/24
6:16 am EDTJOE SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, I'll tell ya what. So many Democrats on the phone, nonstop, since that debate. And there's panic. No doubt, there's panic all around.
I said eight days ago that the president needed to consider getting out. Said that we needed to give it time. Needed to see what's going to happen. And I think we're still there. I mean, it is July the 5th. This happened eight days ago. And decision time is not upon us yet.
. . .
Get this. You probably missed this with all the whining that was going on out there over the past week. As bad as Joe Biden was that night, and he was historically bad, Donald Trump was even worse with his lies.And if you saw any of the polls that came out that had Joe Biden losing a few points, you may have noticed, as the New York Times wrote, that independent voters took notice and that Donald Trump actually lost independent voters in that debate. I find that staggering.
Now, Republicans and their far-right allies in the media are in meltdown mode, saying I told you so. They're accusing the press of a coverup. I'd just say, before they get too self-righteous, let's remember, Republicans long idolized an aging Republican president whose decline was so bad, they let an incoming chief of staff, Howard Baker, to commission a study of the 25th Amendment in case they needed to use it on Ronald Reagan. So please, please, Republicans, please, right-wing media outlets, spare us your moral indignation
. . .So what Democrats need to find out this week, and what Democrats need to worry about this week, are not what the newspapers that were lying about Joe Biden for years before this past week say. They need to look to Joe Biden. And he needs to answer the question, is he capable of moving forward?
. . .
Let's be smart. Let's take a deep breath, and let's understand, it's only July the 5th. Such an historic decision should not be made in haste . . . Democrats, you better get this right. You'd better think through it. You better take your time. You better take a deep breath, and you better get this right . . . Take the time necessary, though, to get this right! Because American democracy is riding on it, and the whole world is watching.
. . .
I swear to God, it has been like -- it's been like therapy. I've been on the phone, unfortunately, taking a lot of calls over the past week. I know you have, too. It, it's like therapy sessions, talking these people down off of the ledge. I mean, they need the answer. They need it right now. They bounce back and forth. They don't realize that it's July the 5th. And they don't remember, maybe 1988, when Michael Dukakis was up 17 points over George H.W. Bush in August.
