Joe Scarborough admits he was 'obviously wrong' about 'best Biden ever' comments
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough conceded on Wednesday that he was "obviously wrong" when he called former President Joe Biden the "best Biden ever" in March 2024.
Scarborough explained during a conversation with CNN's Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on "Morning Joe" that he was in Ireland with Biden in 2023, noting the president had done several events and spoke to the MSNBC host for an interview.
"He's doing well, he has a hero's reception in Ireland. I've told you about going in and talking to him for two and a half, three hours inside the White House, far beyond cogent. I mean really, really has a better, well, has a grasp of international politics in a way that only somebody who's been doing it since he was 29 years old," Scarborough said regarding the exchange.
"We get phone calls at home where the guy is like pounding me because of op-eds that I wrote, etc., etc. So, I said that this was Biden at his best. That's what I saw. That's what other people saw, I was obviously wrong, so I'm not sure what my takeaway is here, the next time," the MSNBC host said.
Scarborough was pressed on the clip of himself calling the former president the "best Biden ever" early in 2024 during a Tuesday conversation with journalist Mark Halperin on his show, "Next Up with Mark Halperin."
The MSNBC host stood by his comments even as Halperin pressed him on whether he should have added a caveat of "except on the days when he's not the best Biden ever" to his remarks, as the pair discussed how the former president had good days and bad days in office.
On "Morning Joe" in March 2024, Scarborough said of Biden, "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."
"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," the host added.
Thompson and Tapper joined the MSNBC program on Wednesday to discuss their new book about Biden's mental acuity, during which Tapper told Scarborough that the former president made a point to convince the MSNBC host that he was fit to run for re-election.
"And so again, am I going to look at a clip that's gone viral and pay more attention to that than two and a half, three hours I had with a guy one-on-one going around the world? No, I'm just not going to," Scarborough said in response to the revelation. "Are some of the clips bad? Yeah, they certainly are bad."
However, he argued that Biden's missteps didn't get in the way of him governing.
"Put into proper context, I'm just not going to freak out and melt down on one or two clips here and there," Scarborough said. "And again he bumbled around, and he stumbled around, but he has for quite some time. That didn't seem to me to get in the way of Joe Biden being able to analyze the most important issues."
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