Morning Joe levels hard truths for President Biden after 'dizzying' day of 'bad news'
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough described the "dizzying" series of events that have left president Joe Biden with few options to continue as the Democratic nominee.
The calls for the 81-year-old president to drop out have grown louder since his frail performance onstage at the first presidential debate last month, but the "Morning Joe" host said the dynamics had changed dramatically since his program signed off the day before.
"We've had so many momentous days over the last couple weeks," Scarborough said. "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. It feels like when you see documentaries of 1968, the chaos that went on, just one event after another after another. But [Wednesday] 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 again."
Scarborough brought up a the series of polls he highlighted on Wednesday's program that showed very little movement since the debate or since a gunman fired at Donald Trump last weekend, and he reminded viewers that pollsters said Democratic infighting about Biden had hurt him as much as the debate.
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"There was a belief in Biden world that he could survive, [but] then we get off the air, and one thing after another happens," Scarborough said. "Of course, we heard that Sen. [Chuck] Schumer, the Democratic majority leader in the United States Senate, called on Joe Biden to, in so many words, to step down. [House minority leader] Hakeem Jeffries basically the same thing, real concern. Perhaps still one of the most powerful people among grassroots and Democratic donors, Nancy Pelosi still out there. What I keep hearing is speaker emeritus Pelosi, so brilliant, she's not getting on phone calls saying, 'Joe Biden must go.' She's conducting a listening tour, and she's calling one Democratic House member after another that are in vulnerable seats. All she's getting back, bad news. So she's letting them know just enough, based on reporting, that she understands their concerns. She's very concerned, too, that they cannot lose the House."
It's not just party leaders and other elites calling on Biden to withdraw, Scarborough said, after an Associated Press poll delivered devastating news for the president.
"Two-thirds of Democrats want Joe Biden out of the race," Scarborough said. "That's not the elites, that's the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. There's no way a candidate can win a general election if two-thirds of his own people say he needs to withdraw. I think those are backwards. Two-thirds actually want him out. So you add all this up. Finally, he gets the word from Jeffrey Katzenberg in Las Vegas, who, before, had been the hero of fundraising, who had raised all this money for Joe Biden, just telling the president, 'The spigot has run dry. Donors are not giving money anymore, Mr. President, we can't get donors to give money.'"
"You then hear about, not infighting inside the Biden campaign, but just a sadness, an understanding that they cannot win with a man that they respect and love," he added. "They're basically waiting for orders. Who are they going to help beat Donald Trump? So all of that, all of that happened yesterday, along with so much more."
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