Joe Scarborough Reveals Abuse He Received By ‘Angry Democrats’ Over His Call for Biden to Bow Out

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough revealed the abuse he received from “angry Democrats” in the wake of his post-presidential debate call for President Joe Biden to consider dropping out of the race.

The morning after the debate on CNN, Scarborough took to the air to lament that Biden “couldn’t respond effectively to Donald Trump’s continued stream of lies about his record” and to warn that “unless there’s a change” he feared “Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States.” The take even sparked a heated exchange with his wife and co-host, Mika Brzezinski , who has backed Biden unquestioningly.

Speaking on Tuesday’s show to guests, noting the pressure on congressional Democrats questioning Biden’s capability, the host reflected on his own experience after his initial take and what impact “pissed off constituents” might have on House members.

That’s the thing that hit me this weekend. When people said, ‘Oh, the House Democrats are going to go back and push Joe Biden out’, I started – I mean, you know, I was… Last week a couple places I was driving, car windows down, I had Democrats yell: ‘Hey, take it easy on Biden, Joe!’ You look on Twitter, which has been a hotbed of angry, far-right reactionary-ism over the past five years or so. It’s changed, man. There are some angry Democrats out there.

So all of that anecdotal, but I found in politics from a very early age, enough anecdotes usually leads to pretty good data eventually. I was just thinking about the house members. What are they hearing from their constituents? Chances are good they’ve got a lot of pissed off constituents.

Since then, having taken some well-timed leave and in kindness to himself, as Biden supporters have rallied behind the president in the week since his debate performance, the MSNBC host has refashioned his take to emphasize a more nuanced remark he offered in post-debate analysis.

On Monday, before the president called in, Scarborough even quoted himself aloud from a time-stamped on-screen still in which he urged the party to “take a breath and see what happens over the next few days.”

Tuesday’s show also opened with Scarborough also wanting to take a moment to “vent” about the “semi-vigorous debate” he’d had with Brzezinski, laughing off how the moment had “apparently” been amplified by “some right-wing something” who “said that we were fighting each other over Joe Biden.”

Things did get tense on the set of Morning Joe following the debate when Scarborough appeared to chide his co-host, saying, “You ‘re the one raising your voice.”

The levity has afforded Scarborough the confidence to attack “media elites” pushing the call to replace Biden, including the New York Times editorial board, whose Monday essay calling for just that the host slapped as a “syntax blog” spawned from the publication’s need to “overcompensate” for having been late to covering concerns over Biden’s age.

Watch above on CNN.