Joe Scarborough Defends Biden, Slams ‘Media Elites’ Telling Him To Step Down

 MSNBC host Joe Scarborough defended President Joe Biden’s reelection and slammed “media elites” for telling Biden to step down following the president’s disastrous debate.

On Monday during “Morning Joe,” Scarborough reversed course and said Biden needs to run in 2024 after previously telling his viewers that Biden should think about dropping out and claimed that “unless there’s a change” Biden will lose — after the president struggled during the CNN presidential debate against former President Donald Trump, the Washington Examiner reported.

“So Biden allies, now, this is what they’re going to say, ‘Oh, wait a second, so you’re telling me that media elites and billionaire donors and Washington politicians and Washington [sic] moguls, they all think that they can substitute their judgment for the judgment of millions of Democratic primary voters?’” Scarborough said.

“John Heilemann, it may happen. And this isn’t about what ought to be, this is about what is, and you know, Joe Biden has a fired up, angry Democratic base in parts, and he’s gotten a lot of elites putting him in a position where he can look strong, staring them down,” he added.

Later on the show, Biden, 81, whose last two weeks have been punctuated by a disastrous debate performance followed by an “incoherent” interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, seemed equal parts frustrated and belligerent when “Morning Joe” anchors Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski pressed him about his cognitive state, as previously reported.

“So, but look, I had a bad night,” Biden said, after claiming he had some kind of infection during the debate. “But the fact of the matter is … look at what I’m doing, I mean, let me put it this way. If there was something that was wrong that night, it’s not like it’s [unintelligible] that’s one night and goes away, that’s why I’ve been out. I’ve been testing myself everywhere I go. Going out and making the case. The night of that debate I went out, I was out until two o’clock in the morning. That very night! That very night! It drives me NUTS people talking about this!”

Following the CNN debate, the MSNBC host asked if Biden could even “run for president in 2024? Donald Trump lied over and over and over and over again, and Joe Biden couldn’t respond to any of those lies,” Mediaitenoted.

“In fact, as The New York Times said, he spent much of the night with his mouth agape and his eyes darting back and forth,” Scarborough said. “He couldn’t fact-check anything Donald Trump said. Not only that, but he missed one layup after another…”

He said despite Biden being “cogent” during the time he spent with him in March, the president “simply was not, on the biggest debate stage ever. And I think what surprised me, and what surprised a lot of people very close to Joe Biden, is the fact that this man always rises to the occasion.”

“And last night was sadly for him and I believe, for Democrats in this country…I’ll use the word tragically, tragically did not rise to the occasion last night,” Scarborough said.