Scarborough questioned the president's mental fitness after his June debate against Trump
Joe Scarborough defends Biden, says he 'did not see' mental decline in meetings
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough passionately defended President Biden on Wednesday and said he never saw signs of decline in his meeting with the president at the White House.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Wednesday that he didn't see President Biden's mental decline in White House meetings as several have questioned the president's legacy while he prepares to hand back the presidency to President-elect Donald Trump.
"I spent, as I’ve said before, two-and-a-half to three hours with Joe Biden in the White House, all over the White House, talking at length and in depth about foreign policy matters. And he was as sharp as anybody else I’ve spoken to and spoke actually like a man who’s been doing this since he was 29 years old and new world leaders. Was he slower physically? Yes. Did he occasionally jumble a few words or a few names? Yes. But he corrected those as well. So after two and a half to three hours of with him in the White House, going all over the White House, I did not see that," Scarborough said.
Scarborough pushed back on the Financial Times' Edward Luce during the conversation, who argued in a piece published Wednesday that Biden's mental decline was an "open secret" in Washington.
"I don’t know that it’s quite so easy that everybody in Washington, D.C., thought the man was ill-equipped to be President of the United States. I know that’s what they say on social media, but that certainly wasn’t my experience. I would guess Mike Barnicle will tell you the same thing, as well as Mika," Scarborough said.
Joe Scarborough launched a heartened defense of President Biden on Wednesday as one of his guests claimed all of Washington D.C. knew of Biden's decline. (Screenshot/MSNBC/MorningJoe)
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Scarborough and Brezinski have been some of Biden's biggest defenders and closest allies in the media. However, Scabrorough questioned the president's fitness following the June debate against Trump.
Scarborough lashed out at viewers in March 2024 who couldn't handle the "truth" that Biden was the best he's ever been.
"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 the March 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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Luce pushed back on the MSNBC host's claim that foreign leaders and the people closest to Biden were "surprised" by how sharp the president was in meetings.
"I'm not actually making stuff up here. I've talked to people who know Biden as well, and I can assure you that I've had many conversations over the previous couple of years about his declining energy, his declining memory, his increasingly short daily schedule to accommodate his declining memory and energy, so I'm not putting this out of thin air," Luce said.
Scarborough said he was not accusing Luce of making anything up, and wondered why people who did observe the president's decline didn't come out and sound the alarm earlier on. Scarborough and Luce noted Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who suggested Biden not run for re-election in September 2023.
President Joe Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Biden is returning to his home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19. (Susan Walsh/AP)
"Because if I had seen it, I would have said it," Scarborough said.
Luce also said that Biden's claim that he could have won was "highly contestable."
"I think that that’s an understandable sense of sort of pride in the fact that he defeated Trump in 2020 and that he was, as I wish to emphasize, a very good president, that he thought he could beat Trump in November. But I do think that’s completely wrong. I think there is no basis for him to believe that," Luce said.
Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
