MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Host Joe Scarborough angrily defended Joe Biden after a report this week citing congressional leaders who said the president is showing obvious signs of mental decline in private meetings.
On his show and social media, Scarborough lashed out at Republicans who were quoted in a Wall Street Journal article claiming that Biden is “slipping” in various closed-door settings. The piece specified that Biden’s allegedly diminished faculties are often apparent in private, though many observers regularly note indications of Biden’s physical and mental decline in public as well. Prominent Democrats, however, wasted no time in criticizing both Republicans and the Journal.
“Biden is far sharper, more intellectually curious, and far more insightful on global affairs than any House GOP speaker I have met over 30 years,” Scarborough wrote on X, formerly Twitter. During his show Wednesday, Scarborough also referred to “friends” who said French President Emmanuel Macron was impressed after a previous meeting with Biden. “Friends that I have in that French delegation, who were part of those negotiations … said that Macron came out like, ‘Wow, okay, he’s a lot tougher than we expected.’”
Scarborough also asserted that some people feel Biden is “too tough” in these negotiations, an attempt to bolster the president’s credibility in the wake of the Journal reporting.
Congressional Democrat leaders also eagerly defended the president, trying to clean up for the White House after the story was widely circulated among reporters and influential commentators on social media.
“Many of us spent time with @WSJ to share on the record our first-hand experiences with @POTUS, where we see his wisdom, experience, strength and strategic thinking,” said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on X. “Instead, the Journal ignored testimony by Democrats, focused on attacks by Republicans and printed a hit piece.”
Senator Patty Murray of Washington said the story was an attack coordinated with the Republican “agenda” and complained that an interview she did with the Journal was not included in the final piece.
“I made clear to the @WSJ regarding the January meeting on Ukraine that the President was absolutely engaged & ran that meeting in a way that brought everyone together,” she said. “I’m not quoted — I wonder why.”
The Journal’s story ran Tuesday evening under the headline “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping.” It featured both on-record and anonymous testimony from elected officials and their staff from both parties who said that in private meetings, Biden appeared mentally dull, inanimate, and unaware of important information and details.
“He read from notes to make obvious points, paused for extended periods and sometimes closed his eyes for so long that some in the room wondered whether he had tuned out,” the article said.
The story included an episode wherein GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed concern that during an in-person meeting with Biden, the president was either confused or forgetful.
“When the topic moved to an immigration overhaul, Johnson, the House speaker, offered Biden a list of dozens of executive actions he could undo to improve border security,” the Journal continued. “Biden, rather than responding to Johnson’s suggestions, chided him, according to people at the meeting, ‘I’ve forgotten more about immigration than you’ll ever know.'”
The White House was cited in the story defending Biden, attempting to explain away much of the criticism as partisan or inconsequential. The authors of the report noted that Biden officials went as far as endorsing the need for damage control, and prompted some Democrats to double back with the Journal on their initial comments to the paper.
“The White House kept close tabs on some of The Wall Street Journal’s interviews with Democratic lawmakers,” the article said. “After the offices of several Democrats shared with the White House either a recording of an interview or details about what was asked, some of those lawmakers spoke to the Journal a second time and once again emphasized Biden’s strengths.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks, Democrat of New York, was quoted as telling the authors, “They just, you know, said that I should give you a call back.”
