“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough offered an impassioned defense of former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday morning, launching into his comments with the caveat that he knew his opinion wouldn’t be popular among the other hosts.
Biden’s been hit by Democrats, including his 2020 opponents, for remarks he made earlier this week about his past efforts to work with documented segregationist senators from the South. Responding to Sen. Kamala Harris’ (D-CA) critique, that Biden was coddling segregationists, Scarborough shot back.
“First of all, I love Kamala (Harris), but Joe Biden didn’t coddle any segregationist in anything he said,” Scarborough said. “In fact, I think he called one of them one of the meanest people he ever met. If that’s coddling, please, stay away from each other, don’t hug me, don’t coddle me. That’s not coddling. Also, he didn’t speak with adoration about these segregationists.”
“(He) picked the people who were the most repugnant to them, who he disagreed with the most and said I could even work with them,” he continued, comparing Biden’s remarks to efforts by former presidents and even evangelist Billy Graham to work with the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Scarborough defends Biden working with "repugnant" segregationists pic.twitter.com/aphNwq7mB6
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 20, 2019
