Speaking on “Morning Joe” Thursday morning after a generally lackluster Democratic Party presidential debate on Wednesday night, Mika Brzezinski and Tom Nichols said that Democrats just need to accept former Vice President Joe Biden as the party’s presidential nominee — or else risk a likely “blowout” in the Rust Belt states.
According to Newsbusters, the argument over Biden’s electability began when Joe Scarborough blasted the former vice president for his poor debate performance, which consisted of no shortage of bumbling and asinine gaffes.
“Former Vice Pesident Biden, who did appear shaky at times,” began Jonathan Lemire, prompting Scarborough to interject.
“At times? Which time? Like the time he was talking about stopping domestic violence where you’ve got to punch it, and punch it, and punch it,” Scarborough shot back. “Or when he talked about the only black woman to ever be in the Senate endorsing him.”
Indeed, Biden’s worst moment, arguably of the entire debate cycle thus far, came when he bragged about receiving an endorsement from the “only black woman” ever elected to the U.S. Senate — while he stood mere feet away from Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). After the crowd erupted into laughter, Biden immediately corrected himself to say “the first,” instead of the only, black female U.S. senator.
“He’s struggling there. He’s closing his eyes. He knows he’s having trouble finding words,” Scarborough continued. “The sentences are jumbled, the words are jumbled. I just wonder, when I read — you see this and, listen, I’m just saying, I think Biden has the best chance of beating Trump. I do. Like, if he’s on his game. But I just wonder, is the media grading Joe Biden on a scale? Are we afraid to say that a lot of his sentences don’t make sense? That he’s having trouble completing thoughts?”
At this moment, Mika Brzezinski came to Biden’s defense.
“I feel a little defensive for him right now, actually, just watching him because this, you know, if you look at how he’s doing, and you look at who he is, and you look at his history personally and professionally, he is best suited for the job, one could argue,” she said. “And, you know, whether his performance on a debate stage with 12 other people in 30 seconds or less is pitch-perfect, I’m not sure it matters. And I think the voters who are engaged right now, they’re really looking at those factors, who he is, what his background is, what kind of a person he is. Who do they want to beat Trump? And who they want to lead this country and bring us back to some version, some semblance of normal?”
Nichols quickly agreed with Brzezinski, saying that Biden is the only chance Democrats have of winning back the White House.
“He’s always been gaffe-prone and a little uncertain. But I think, you know, Mika’s point is absolutely right,” said Nichols. “Are you going to go with that or are you going to say, you know, once again we’re going to lose 100,000 votes in the Rust Belt, have a big electoral blowout. And that’s the big concern.”