Joe Scarborough, the former congressman, ally of President Biden and influential host of the MSNBC show “Morning Joe,” on Thursday morning all but called on Mr. Biden’s aides to help him exit the race.
Mr. Scarborough has been blunt that the president’s debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump on June 27 was calamitous but has also interviewed Mr. Biden since and was sympathetic to him in the days following the debate. On Thursday, the host cited polling for the president that has taken a massive slide and fund-raising that has disappeared.
He did not lay the blame at Mr. Biden’s feet, but instead at what he described as a “bubble” of people around the president who were shielding him.
The host’s remarks came after a day of cascading events, including reports that Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, had both spoken to Mr. Biden and warned that his re-election chances were becoming dire, and that Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, had bluntly told the president that Democratic candidates were likely to lose down-ballot races. On the same day, California Senate candidate and Pelosi ally Adam Schiff publicly called on Mr. Biden to leave the race.
On “Morning Joe” Thursday, Mr. Scarborough spoke into the camera about the message Mr. Biden’s team was receiving, “when you’re told by members of Congress that they’re losing, they’re going to lose the House and the Senate if he stays on the ticket. He added that people were telling the Biden team that their swing-state poll numbers are in peril and that money from campaign donors has dried up.
“It’s really incumbent on people that are around Joe Biden to step up at this point and help the president, and help the man they love, and do the right thing,” Mr. Scarborough said. “This is not going to end well if it continues to drag out. Look at the events of yesterday, the events of the last three weeks.”
He added: “The anger that I hear is not at Joe Biden. The anger I hear are the people who are keeping him in a bubble.” Some of those people, he said, may have their own interests in keeping him in the race.
“That’s not just the anger from inside Congress,” the host said. “That is anger from inside the political, his own political camp, and it is widespread.”
There have been many complaints from Democrats that Mr. Biden’s circle has shrunk, and that they are unsure about the quality of information he is being given. Mr. Scarborough appeared to echo that point, suggesting that the people around the president are failing him.
Mr. Scarborough said bluntly: “Joe Biden deserves better. He deserves better than he is getting from those closest to him.”
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