By Rich Lowry
Sunday, July 07, 2024
A couple of months ago, Joe Scarborough warned his
viewers, and especially his critics, that he was about to unleash a truth bomb.
The former Republican congressman wanted everyone to know
not that Joe Biden had lost a step but was still okay, not that Biden was
better than Trump regardless of his physical and mental state, and certainly
not that he had heard some concerning things about Biden but he didn’t want
anyone to draw premature conclusions.
No, no — he wanted everyone to know that Joe Biden was
more impressive than ever.
This was ludicrous at the time but has been exposed as
propagandistic dreck in light of Biden’s debate debacle that appalled even
Scarborough himself.
“Start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you
the truth,” Scarborough said directly to the camera on his March 6 program, “and F
you if you can’t handle the truth.”
“This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is
the best Biden ever, not a close second,” he continued.
According to Scarborough, “I undersold him 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.”
He added, “If it weren’t the truth I wouldn’t say it.”
Indeed, Biden was supposedly such an intellectual giant,
so acute in so many ways, it was a wonder he was even in a competitive race.
“Historians will look back,” Scarborough pronounced, “and they will say, ‘Why
was this race close in February and early March, because it makes no sense?’”
Did his co-panelists venture to suggest that, even though
they preferred Biden to Trump as much as Scarborough did, this might be a touch
over the top? No, of course not. “All of that is right,” Jonathan Lemire
offered.
There are journalistic failures, and then there’s
creating an alternate reality in the apparent hope that if it is declaimed
confidently enough that it will prevail over the truth.
We know now that Biden’s alarming decline was one of the
worst-kept secrets in Washington (how could it have been well kept given that
the evidence was before our eyes?). Democratic senators knew. Democratic donors
knew. Journalists knew. But what is supposed to be one of the most plugged-in
political programs on television had no idea? Not one panelist ever got a whiff
of it or was a touch worried about the stiff gait, blank looks, confusion about
where to go, flagrant verbal miscues, or mumbly incoherence?
Even if we chalk it up to being in an information bubble,
there’s no excusing the vicious and self-righteous attacks on anyone who dared
tell the truth, even in relatively mild terms, about Joe Biden.
When Robert Hur described Biden — charitably, as it
turned out — as an “elderly man with poor memory,” Morning Joe couldn’t
handle it.
Scarborough led the way, calling that line “garbage.” He
hit Hur for his “politically charged, Trump-like ramblings.” In the midst of
his angry denunciations of Hur for saying something that was true and relevant
to his decision not to charge Biden, Scarborough referred to “liars” on other
news networks and in other parties, and accused Hur of “bad faith.“
When about a month ago the Wall Street Journal ran
a piece with a headline that is now completely unassailable,
“Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping,” Morning Joe similarly
melted down.
On Twitter, Scarborough called it a “false, biased
story.” On air, he said the Journal based the story on “Kevin McCarthy’s
lies” and that Biden “is light-years” — yes, light-years — ahead of every
Republican speaker of the past 30 years. Finally, he declared himself
speechless at the absurdity of any suggestion that Biden wasn’t doing so great
behind closed doors: “I don’t know what to say.”
Panelist Mike Barnicle said he was “embarrassed for the Wall
Street Journal” for running “a classic hit piece” that was “so tilted, so
off the mark.”
“This piece is outrageous,” Barnicle fumed.
Of course, there’s now been ample reporting about Biden’s
capabilities that has gone much further than the offending Wall Street
Journal article.
All of this is an especially poor showing given that
Scarborough was suggesting back in 2017 that Trump had dementia, the same
Trump who seven years later won a debate going away against the incumbent
president Scarborough insisted was at the very top of his game.
Some might say that Scarborough betrayed Joe Biden with
his now-hedged about-face immediately after the debate. By
trying so hard to create a false image of Joe Biden, though, Scarborough really
betrayed his viewers.
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