Turns out, Joe Scarborough wasn't telling the truth when for weeks and months he was talking up Biden's chances of winning, discounting any polling that indicated the opposite. We now find out that Scarborough knew better all along.
On today's Morning Joe, Willie Geist told the truth.
"I think what we saw yesterday was everything we'd been hearing in private. Not just, frankly, for the last three weeks, but for a long time, spilled out publicly. Which is that the polling now shows, private polling and now public polling, that we're seeing, internal polling and public polling, that this is an uphill climb, not just for the president but for everybody down ballot."
So for "a long time," not just the last three weeks, Scarborough & Co. knew that Biden was in a serious hole and in danger of dragging down his entire party. But Scarborough put on a resolutely false face of optimism.
This doesn't come as any real surprise. After all, Scarborough has been bragging about spending hours at a time with Biden, and serving as an informal campaign adviser. He was no more likely to be truthful about Biden's chances than the formal members of the Biden campaign.
Still, it does put a final nail in the coffin of any pretensions Scarborough might have had of being anything other than an all-in Biden lackey and hack.
Scarborough has also established himself as a world-class weathervane. He went from being a Biden dead-ender, to strongly suggesting, just the day after the debate debacle, that he step aside. Only to somehow get back on the Biden team bus within a day. To now, today, suggesting that we're headed to a Biden announcement similar to that LBJ made in 1968, when he said he would not seek or accept the Democrat nomination for another term.
In other grim news for the Morning Joe crew, Jonathan Lemire acknowledged that "like it or not," the Republicans are totally unified around Trump. And you know that Morning Joe and the rest of the liberal media don't like it one bit.
In contrast, said Lemire of the Democrats, there is "this sense of doom that's permeated the party."
Sad!
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/18/24
6:03 am EDTJOE SCARBOROUGH: We've had so many momentous days over the last several weeks. I can't believe there won't be history books that just detail what's happened, maybe over the last three weeks, the last 21 days. It's really dizzying.
And it feels like when, when, when you see documentaries of 1968. When, when, the chaos that went on. Just one event after another after another. But yesterday, Willie, was just a day, in and of itself that, may be determinative, that may lead to that March 1968 moment when LBJ announced that he wasn't going to seek the Democratic nomination.
. . .
WILLIE GEIST: And then at the end of the day, we learn that the President of the United States has tested positive for Covid. Which feels like a coda to the day you just laid out, where Democrats just went, "ugh. How much more of this can we take?"
And I think what we saw yesterday was everything we've been hearing in private. Not just, frankly, for the last three weeks, but for a long time, spilled out publicly. Which is that the polling now shows, private polling and now public polling, that we're seeing, internal polling and public polling, that this is an uphill climb, not just for the president but for everybody down ballot.
. . .
JONATHAN LEMIRE: He has been out there publicly saying I'm staying in this. Stop asking me. And the questions have only grown. The Biden team's efforts to push this aside simply haven't worked.
And as Joe just ran through, yesterday felt like a really significant day. And we should note, the Schumer meeting was over the weekend. Pelosi was several days ago. Jeffries was several days ago. But what was not coincidental is that they all leaked yesterday.
And I think that there is a sense that this is the time, that Democrats see this as their final moment. As a contrast of what we're seeing at the RNC, where, like it or not, the Republicans are totally unified around Donald Trump. They've embraced his running mate. We're going to hear from Trump tonight. The confidence there! And they're also expected to put up a record fundraising total in the wake of the assassination attempt.
You contrast that with the Democrats, their own fundraising drying up, and this sense of doom that's permeated the party. And maybe that's not fair to President Biden, but that's where the party is right now.
