CNN’s Jim Acosta Stunned By Biden’s Morning Joe Hit — Calls It ‘Page From Trump’s Playbook’

CNN anchor Jim Acosta was stunned by President Joe Biden’s defiant letter to Congress, and his surprise interview on MSNBC — calling it a “page out of Donald Trump’s playbook.”

Calls for President Biden to drop out have escalated from a media frenzy over anonymous chatter to a media frenzy over elected Democrats stepping out publicly after CNN’s Biden-Trump debate .

The president has vowed to stay in the race and attempted to reassure critics with a series of interviews and a stepped-up campaign schedule, and on Monday released a letter to Congress defying calls to step down.

The president continued his campaign to quell those calls with an extensive phoner on Monday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe .

On Monday’s edition of CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta , Acosta hosted ex-CNNer Brian Stelter to talk about the letter and the MSNBC hit, and both agreed it was a “Trumpian” move — but not necessarily in a bad way:

JIM ACOSTA: President Biden on the offensive this morning, talking to a morning television show just a short while ago, defending his right to run for a second term, even challenging members of his own party to a convention floor fight. …

You probably saw what the president said just a short while ago. How stunned are you that Joe Biden is saying to these nervous Democrats out there, hey, if you’ve got a problem, challenge me at the convention?

BRIAN STELTER: Yeah. I saw one reporter from Semafor saying Biden’s offering a murder-suicide pact. He’s saying, if you try to take me out, you’re going to take all of us out.

And I think that is an accurate assessment of this incredible moment we’re in, Jim.

It does make a lot of sense, though, to have Biden working the phones, doing more interviews. This is what people were calling for a week ago. They were saying, why isn’t he working the phones? Why isn’t he calling into television and radio shows?

That ABC interview, last Friday night, it was relatively low rated. It did not, you know, change the calculus, did not change the dynamic of this race or that situation for Biden.

So he’s being more aggressive today with this letter, with this phone call, maybe with other interviews in the coming hours, trying to change the dynamic.

JIM ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, and it was, I mean, it was a little bit of a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook, calling in to a morning show this morning.

BRIAN STELTER: Yes. I think we should recognize that. I don’t want to use the phrase Trumpian and go down that path as an insult, because it’s not meant always as an insult. It’s a recognition that certain political tactics that worked for Donald Trump might also work for other politicians.

But yes, Biden did sound a bit Trumpian in this most recent call. He did, by the way, also on ABC, there is an element of resentment and grievance that you and I very well recognize from the former president.

And we do know that motivates some voters. It certainly is a way to fire up base voters.

What it probably doesn’t do, though, is change these anxious, nervous, panicked Democrat lawmakers. Whether it’s going to sway them, I think that’s an entirely different question.

But it was so telling Jim to hear Biden say, it’s driving me crazy listening at all this. He’s saying all the columnists and writers calling for his departure, that he doesn’t care about what they’re saying.

But he he clearly does. And he should pay attention to what they’re saying. They’re making cogent arguments.

Watch above via CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta .