The first Democratic debate — which was hosted by NBC and MSNBC and came in two installments, the first on Wednesday, the second on Thursday — was such a “disaster” that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough felt the need to apologize to everyone tuning into “Morning Joe” Friday morning. The biggest problem, he maintained, is that the Democrats just demonstrated to the American people that they’re as much of a “clown show” as Donald Trump. And then there was frontrunner Joe Biden’s “disturbing” performance…
Scarborough’s comments, reported by The Hill, came the morning after the second Democratic presidential primary debate, held in Miami, Florida, Thursday night.
“With apologies to our friends and watching, last night was a disaster for the Democratic Party,” he said, adding: “My only hope is people were not watching, and I will tell you why.”
Despite being “lined up in trench warfare” and poised to jump out and “charge Donald Trump,” the Democrats ended up getting caught up in friendly fire. Rather than taking aim at the true target, “they all turn their guns on each other and shoot each other, and everybody is yelling at each other all night,” said Scarborough.
“If you’re an American and this is your introduction to these candidates and the Democratic Party, and all you see are 12 people yelling at each other, trying to interrupt each other, insulting each other, you’re like, ‘You know what. I thought Donald Trump was a clown show. I’m changing the channel,'” he said.
As the most egregious example, he pointed to California Sen. Kamala Harris bludgeoning Biden for his past opposition to federally mandated bussing as a way of enacting desegregation, when, Scarborough noted, studies have shown that a majority of Americans’ generally disagree with bussing students to achieve integration.
The “Morning Joe” host’s other overarching criticism of the overstuffed Democratic field is their embrace of radical left policies, particularly on illegal immigration and healthcare.
The biggest loser in the debacle, Scarborough suggested, was Biden, who turned in one of “the most disturbing debate performances” he’s seen. The 76-year-old former vice president appeared to have problems finishing a thought and failed to provide many specifics. Sanders was also particularly bad in Joe’s estimation, simply rehashing old talking points from his failed presidential bid in 2016.
Scarborough is certainly not alone in deeming Biden the biggest loser of the night and pointing to his contentious exchange with Harris as one of the defining moments of the debate. As The Daily Wire highlighted, Harris’ withering rebuke of Biden for recently complimenting the “civility” of staunchly pro-abortion Democrats he worked with in Congress in the past and his opposition to the bussing mandate was met with a rather incoherent response by the frontrunner.
The Democrats’ embrace of radical policies was also noted by more than just Scarborough. The moment from Thursday’s debate that generated the most backlash from the Right was when the candidates were asked if they planned to give illegal immigrants access to taxpayer-funded healthcare. Their unanimous affirmative became an instant meme that prompted the sole tweet from Trump about the debate.
Related: WATCH: Here’s The Moment From 2nd Democratic Debate That Prompted Trump’s Only Tweet