It's only taken Joe Scarborough 441 days to "handle the truth."
As late as yesterday, in a conversation with Mark Halperin in his excellent "Next Up" series, an intransigent Scarborough was still defending the absurd claim he made on March 6, 2024:
"F-you if you can't handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever."
An adamant Scarborough told Halperin:
"Am I going to look at a clip [of a stumbling Biden] that's gone viral and pay more attention to that than two-and-a-half, three hours I had with the guy one-on-one going around the world [on foreign policy issues]. No, I'm just not going to.
"Are some of the clips bad? Yeah, they certainly are bad. I can understand why people would see that, without the context, and say that there was a problem with that. Especially because I said, start with your tape right here.
"But when I look at that tape, based on what I saw with Biden, based on the time that I spent with Biden, based on the hundreds of hours that I talked to people who talked to Biden, and people that worked with Biden, and were with him day in and day out. Good friends that I know, that I trusted before Biden was president, that I trust now that Biden's not president.
"I mean, put into proper context, I'm just not going to freak out and melt down on one or two clips here or there."
But finally, on today's Morning Joe, in a conversation with "Original Sin" co-authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, Scarborough finally admitted that in making his "best Biden ever" claim, "I was obviously wrong."
Mika Brzezinski kicked off the conversation by bizarrely trying to get her guests to agree that Biden had "a successful presidency, a remarkable presidency, possibly even a historic presidency." Tapper deflected: "I'm not here to render a verdict on how successful a president he was," turning the discussion to the cover-up of Biden's decline.
In defending against the authors' [accurate] assertion that the media didn't do its job in covering Biden's decline, Mika pointed to the fact that the very next day after Biden's disastrous debate performance, Scarborough had called on him to quit the race.
But, speaking of bizarre things, Mika went on to say that she still believes Biden should have stayed in the race, the debate meltdown notwithstanding:
"I personally went on a very long plea for him to stay in the race, and I still stand by it. Nobody agrees with me."
Nobody? Not necessarily so, Mika! Don't forget that immediately following the debate, Dr. Jill congratulated Biden: "Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question! You knew all the facts!"
Tapper ended the conversation with an attempt to elicit sympathy for Biden, and to explain his supposedly sudden decline. Tapper said that "top aides told us:"
"The two moments in which he really seemed to lose the most in terms of this non-functioning Biden, his acuity just draining out of his body, was the summer of 2023 when Hunter Biden's plea deal fell apart, and then June before the debate, 2024, when Hunter Biden was convicted of a crime and there was very real chance of him going to prison."
Tapper continued:
"And Hunter Biden was saying things along the lines of, they're trying to make me relapse. They, meaning the Republicans, they're trying to make me relapse. They're trying to make me kill myself. They're trying to, you know. And President Biden had a very real and legitimate fear that he was going to lose a third child. And that drained life from him, and that was very impactful. "
Tapper shows his true colors. Who was ultimately responsible for Biden's decline? It was those evil Republicans, who were trying to make Hunter kill himself, thus causing Biden to fear for the loss of yet another child.
In fact, there was NO chance of Hunter ever going to prison, since it was widely understood that Biden was always planning to pardon Hunter, as he did a month before leaving office.
And why would Tapper credulously buy into what "top aides" to Biden told him, since they were lying to him and anyone who would listen about sharp-as-a-tack Biden?
Note: Tapper did more talking than his co-author Thompson, but the latter injected an important dose of reality.
When Tapper said that Biden, Dr. Jill and top advisors felt he should run in 2024 because they believed he was the only one who could beat Trump, who posed an "existential threat to the republic," Thompson retorted:
"How much of it was them looking for a reason, versus what was the reality?"
Bingo.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
5/21/25
7:31 am EDTMIKA BRZEZINSKI: I guess at first, I'll start with kind of an obvious question, but Jake, is it fair to say that Joe Biden had a successful presidency, a remarkable presidency, possibly even a historic presidency in his time in office?
JAKE TAPPER: Well, he certainly feels that way, and we don't really render --
MIKA: But when you look at the legislation that he passed and his accomplishments and how it ranks against other presidents?
TAPPER: I'm not here to render a verdict on how successful a president he was. Certainly, he feels that way. You can point to any number of accomplishments he has, he had, having to do with NATO or the infrastructure bill or the CHIPS Act and on and on. And that will be for history to decide.
Obviously, the American people thought that the country was on the wrong track and took issue with the border and inflation and his age and acuity.
But this book is more focused on what happened. You know, we all saw the debate June 27th. We were all shocked. We were all stunned at his inability to communicate his thoughts and the record that you speak of to the American people. And Alex and I set out to figure out what happened.
MIKA: Right.
. . .
TAPPER: The bottom line is, the reason that Biden, his wife, his son, Donilon and Ricchetti and others convinced themselves that what they were doing was in the best interest of the country was, one, they thought only Joe Biden could defeat Donald Trump. They were convinced of that. Two, they thought that Donald Trump posed an existential threat to the republic. And if you think that those are the stakes, you can justify almost anything.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, they also thought, three, as you all point out, that Kamala Harris couldn't beat Donald Trump, right?
TAPPER: That's true. How much of that was driving it?
ALEX THOMPSON: I mean, how much of it was them looking for a reason, versus what was the reality?
. . .
MIKA: One of the contentions you make is that sort of the media didn't do its part or did, like, way too late.
And what's not in the book is the day after the debate, Joe, very painfully, immediately says Biden should step out of the race. It was really a big change for the direction of the show.
I personally went on a very long plea for him to stay in the race, and I still stand by it. Nobody agrees with me.
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: I've told you about going in and talking to him for two and a half, three hours inside the White House. Uh, far beyond cogent. I mean, really, really, uh, has a better, has a grasp of international, uh, politics. Yeah. In a way that only somebody's been doing it since he was 29 years old.
TAPPER: Sure.
SCARBOROUGH: We get phone calls at home where the guy is, like, pounding me because of op-eds that I wrote, et cetera, et cetera.
So I said that that this was Biden at his, at his best.
TAPPER: Sure.
SCARBOROUGH: That's what I saw.
TAPPER: I don't doubt it.
SCARBOROUGH: That's what other people saw. I was obviously wrong.
TAPPER: And one of the other things that's really important, and this does continue to get to the tragedy of this all, is top aides told us that the two moments in which he really seemed to lose the most in terms of this non-functioning Biden, his acuity just draining out of his body, was the summer of 2023 when Hunter Biden's plea deal fell apart, and then June before the debate, 2024, when Hunter Biden was convicted of a crime and there was very real chance of him going to prison.
And the reason is not just how sad it was for the family, but because at this point, President Biden has lost two children, Beau, and then his daughter in that horrible 1972 accident. And Hunter Biden was saying things along the lines of, they're trying to make me relapse. They, meaning the Republicans, they're trying to make me relapse. They're trying to make me kill myself. They're trying to, you know.
And President Biden had a very real and legitimate fear that he was going to lose a third child. And that drained life from him, and that was very impactful.
