CNN’s Jake Tapper told MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday that former President Joe Biden made a targeted effort to sell the MSNBC host on his re-election campaign during a conversation on “Morning Joe.”
Tapper described Biden to Scarborough as “a frequent viewer of the show,” and then referenced a 2023 Washington Post column by David Ignatius, where the columnist wrote that the former president should not run for re-election. “And then [Ignatius] came on this show and you guys had a robust conversation about this,” Tapper said, noting the MSNBC host agreed at the time that there were concerns about the former president running for re-election but also that there were no alternatives.
Tapper and Alex Thompson, an Axios reporter, joined “Morning Joe” to discuss their new book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” which details the former president’s decision to run again and the cover-up of his decline while in office.
“Joe Biden saw that. Joe Biden said to staffers that he wanted to convince you that you were wrong, and he focused on you like you were a constituency, like you were farmers in Iowa, like you were the Kiwanis Clubs in New Hampshire. And he made sure that you thought differently,” Tapper told Scarborough.
MSNBC’S JOE SCARBOROUGH SAYS HE ‘DID NOT SEE’ BIDEN MENTAL DECLINE IN WHITE HOUSE MEETINGS
Scarborough said he must have spoken to Biden on his “good days” as MSNBC’s Willie Geist said that it was very possible Scarborough got to see the former president when he was well-rested and prepared.
“It was a campaign though, for Joe, it was a campaign. The Biden people wanted to make sure that Joe [Scarborough] saw Biden at his best,” Tapper added.
Tapper asked the MSNBC host what time of day he saw Biden, and Scarborough said it was a lunch meeting.
“There you go,” Tapper responded. “Middle of the day.”
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Scarborough was confronted with a viral clip of himself deeming the former president the “best Biden ever” on Tuesday, and ultimately stood by his comments during a conversation with Mark Halperin on his show, “Next Up with Mark Halperin.”
“I’ve said it for years now, he’s cogent. But I undersold it when I said he was cogent, he’s far beyond cogent. In fact, I think he’s better than he’s ever been, intellectually, analytically, because he’s been around for 50 years,” Scarborough said during a March 2024 “Morning Joe” broadcast. “Start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And f-you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever.”
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Scarborough argued to Halperin, “He stumbled and bumbled around, Mark. I mean, yeah, he certainly did. Donald Trump did, other politicians did, and it’s actually the same case as a lot of times when I’ve gone in and talked to Donald Trump.”
“Put into proper context, I’m just not going to freak out and melt down on one or two clips here and there,” the “Morning Joe” host added. “And again he bumbled around, and he stumbled around, but he has for quite some time. That didn’t seem to me to get in the way of Joe Biden being able to analyze the most important issues.”
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