Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” on Wednesday criticized Democratic strategist David Axelrod for continuing to publicly criticize the president as Biden remains adamant that he will continue to campaign.
Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski used the news show to scold Biden’s critics and defend the president, who was sometimes stumped for words.
“He got a word or two wrong,” Scarborough said of Biden’s remarks on Sunday, adding that those kinds of small mistakes happen to everyone. Scarborough also told Axelrod, Confusing the two names Meanwhile, during an appearance on CNN on Sunday, he criticized Biden for doing the same thing.
“And by the way, it’s so funny, David Axelrod interrupted Joe Biden a few days ago when he was speaking on Sunday night,” Scarborough said, “and of course David Axelrod had to bring it up.”
“And you got someone’s name wrong,” Brzezinski interjected.
“And then they get somebody’s name wrong,” Scarborough repeated. “So does David Axelrod need to get off TV? This happens all the time. People in the media keep saying, ‘Oh, Joe Biden got his name wrong,’ and then they throw it at somebody and they get their name wrong.”
“We know we do,” Brzezinski said.
“We’re doing a lot of things,” Scarborough added.
Axelrod, who served as a senior White House adviser under then-President Barack Obama, was a prominent Democrat voice arguing that the president should step down and hand the party’s top spot to someone else.
Scarborough has long been one of Biden’s most staunch defenders, but after Biden’s struggles in the debates he publicly questioned Biden’s chances of reelection. He also criticized the president’s performance, saying “Donald Trump lied over and over again, and Joe Biden failed to counter those lies at all.”
“We’ve been asking the question, ‘Why is this race so close? I have no idea why it’s so close.’ Last night I understood why this race is so close and why I’m concerned that if things don’t change, Donald Trump is going to be the next president of the United States,” Scarborough said on his show the morning after the debate.
Scarborough acknowledged he raised those concerns immediately after the debate, but said the time for such changes has passed.
“The day after the debate, I said he needed to consider stepping down. I said let’s wait a few days and see what happens, see how this goes,” Scarborough said, adding that polls have not moved significantly in recent weeks despite Biden’s poor performance in the debates and pressure from “elite billionaires” and celebrities to step down.
“You can call all the most influential people in politics and the media and try to remove this guy from the running. You can do that. You’ve been trying to do that for three weeks and it’s not working. He’s saying he’s not going anywhere. If you look at the poll numbers, it’s the people who are actually answering the polls,” Scarborough said.
“They’re saying, ‘Hey, a guy from Delaware is OK. A guy from a state university is OK. It’s OK.’ That’s what they’re saying right now.”
