Morning Joe Hosts Pummel Fence-Sitting Democrat Over Biden Staying In The Race: ‘Congressman! Congressman!’

Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in New Jersey in November, joined the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday and was hammered over whether or not he believes President Joe Biden should stay in the presidential race.

“Do you believe congressmen, the president should stay in the race?” began co-host Willie Geist.

“Well, look, you know, that’s his decision,” Kim replied as Geist cut in, “Well, he says he’s made his decision that he’s staying.”

“And look, I think that right now, if he wants to proceed in that direction,” Kim tried to continue as Geist again cut in, “He does.”

Kim finally got in a full reply, adding, “He needs to show that we have unity amongst the rest of the Democratic leadership. And that is something that we don’t have right now. So, you know, I do think that it’s on him then to be able to bring everyone together and to be able to have those conversations that lay out the strategy, the conversations we have so far have not gotten into the level of depth that’s clearly needed for us to be able to think this through. So I respect him. I worked for him before at the White House. I understand how he thinks. You know, he is somebody that, is not going to be pushed into a decision. You know, he’s somebody that I think would be better for us to surround ourselves, have that kind of upfront conversation in person, rather than everything that’s being laid out through social media. You know, I don’t anticipate this process that’s happening right now is beneficial for our party.”

Geist responded, “He’s been pretty clear again and again, including yesterday, saying I’m all in, that he’s staying in the race. And it seems like Democrats can’t take yes for an answer. So what is the conversation that’s happening right now among your colleagues?”

Kim replied, “Well, I think the conversation that wants that everyone wants to know is, what is the full strategy here going for? What’s going to change coming out from the debate going forward in terms of how it’s going to be messaged? You know, what his posture would be in terms of public appearances and other things like that. And, you know, we just haven’t had that conversation. I think a lot of my colleagues don’t feel like, myself included, don’t feel like we’ve gotten the full sense of that. And I think that there’s still room that’s not going best to be done through again, you know, through Twitter and social media. I really think at this point, you know, we need to be able to show unity. I mean, look, what we’re seeing right now with the Republican National Convention. You know, we’re seeing a tremendous amount, of, of effort on their end to try to project unity and unity around very scary and dangerous proposals that will change this country forever.”

As the conversation continued, host Joe Scarborough also hammered Kim over Democrat’s reluctance to embrace Biden:

Congressman, congressman, 14 million Democrats across the country who still obviously support him. If you look at these polls, 14 million Democrats. Wow. How would you feel if you. Won the Democratic primary by 85%. And then when you get into the general election campaign, you had like, you know, mayors and and party bigwigs and donors saying, oh, Congressman shouldn’t run. We don’t we’re not like how we debated he needs to get out of the race when you get out of the race.

“Well, look, that’s not what I’m saying right now. You know, this is a decision again for the president. But he’s made a decision for the nominee in terms of the strategy going forward. I’m not just saying,” Kim replied as Scarborough jumped in, “Congressman! Congressman! He’s made the decision. He’s running. He’s in it to win it.”

Kim shot back, “I’m talking about the strategy, the message. How do we close those final points ? That’s what I want to hear from him and what I think we can then say how can we help? What is our role.”

Scarborough , who has been boosting Biden’s bid to stay in the race in recent weeks, concluded, “Nobody knows Willie. Who’s going to lose? Nobody knows what’s going to happen next week. Next month, this is a very volatile race. I’m just saying right now. You know, he’s made his decision, so I’m not exactly sure what what the two-step is all about with with with members of Congress and billionaire donors and then media types. I’m not sure what they’re waiting for.”

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.