As everyone on the planet knows, last night was the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the 2024 election cycle and we feel pretty confident in saying that Trump won the debate handily, not so much because Trump gave a great performance—it was about average for Trump—but because Biden gave such a terrible performance. We will surely say more but we think the worst part of it, for Biden, was the split screen. Most of the time when Trump was speaking, you could still see Biden on the other side of the screen and he looked alternatively tired, confused, angry and just old in general. He did not look like he was capable of doing the job of president.
And you need no better evidence of how badly it went for Biden than the absolute meltdown the left is having over the whole thing. We here at Twitchy will probably get days worth of material out of it.
This time, we are focusing on a painfully awkward exchange between Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski (whose last name is a war crime to dyslexics). They are not only co-host of Morning Joe, but they are real life married and … after watching this clip, we are pretty sure Joe is sleeping on the couch tonight:
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's on-air tiff about Biden’s disastrous debate😂
— Eddie (@Eddies_X) June 28, 2024
Mika: "Everybody calm down, it's fine to not spin what happened last night."
Joe: "By the way Mika, everybody's calm here, you're the only one raising your voice…I said these were questions… pic.twitter.com/vTyPQoQWQH
The cut off text reads:
I said these were questions that Democrats and Biden needed to ask themselves…it's not being panicked to understand what's at stake."
We have just cringed to death, and so a kitten will finish this post by walking on our keyboard.
And we have other clips from the suicide watch debate analysis on Morning Joe. For instance, here’s a clip gaining popularity showing Scarborough several months ago declaring that Joe Biden was actually better than ever, contrasted with his admission this morning that Joe Biden might be unfit:
Watching Joe Scarborough eat his own words is pretty amazing. pic.twitter.com/EPwFRioQvP
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 28, 2024
Morning Joe’s better he’s ever been
— Ron Coleman (@RonColeman) June 28, 2024
And we get several clips via Chris Houck and the indispensable Newsbusters:
🧵🍿 MSNBC's Joe Scarborough initial reaction to last night's #CNNDebate:
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 28, 2024
“Well, I think I should start by saying, without any apologies, that I love Joe Biden and Jill, and I will gladly debate anybody anytime anyplace, anywhere, over the issue of whether Joe Biden has been the… pic.twitter.com/xoEEZqf0uB
The cut off text:
‘Well, I think I should start by saying, without any apologies, that I love Joe Biden and Jill, and I will gladly debate anybody anytime anyplace, anywhere, over the issue of whether Joe Biden has been the most effective president in passing bipartisan legislation, in expanding NATO, in responding to the rising threat coming from China, by flexing America's strength around China, by having the strongest economy in the world, bar none, the strongest economy, actually, relative to the rest of the world in 50, 60, 70 years, the strongest dollar in half a century, the strongest military relative to the rest of the world. I would argue, and many others would argue, since 1945. I think his presidency has been an unqualified success. If, however, you believe, as do I, and as do so many people who watch this program, and who fear just how dark of a place a second Donald Trump term will take America, then I think it is critical that we ask the same questions about this man I love, respect, and whose — whose public service in saving this country from Donald Trump over the last three and a half years I honor and always will. I think we have to ask the same questions of him that we have asked of Donald Trump since 2016. And that is, if he were CEO and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 corporation in America keep him on as CEO?’
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Biden's performance in last night's #CNNDebate:
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 28, 2024
“Um, if this were Donald Trump — time and time again, we talked about the Goldwater, where’s Barry Goldwater to walk over and tell Richard Nixon it was over, to tell Donald Trump it was over. Now, the… pic.twitter.com/6A8F3xVUy9
The cut off text:
Now, the question is, do Democrats need to do the same thing of Joe Biden? I mean, these — these are hard questions, but the fact is, friends, failure is just not an option. In 2024, failure is not an option. So, who I love, who I respect, who I revere for their work and their duty to service over their lifetime really is not relevant. It's not relevant for any of us. It is not relevant for Democratic leaders. It's not relevant for anyone. The question is, can — we know Joe Biden can govern.
I'll debate that issue with anyone, and I will win. I will destroy anybody that wants to debate Joe Biden's record over the past three and a half years. He can run the White House. He can run the country effectively. Despite the barrage of lies that constantly come at him, like Donald Trump's lies last night. But can he run for president in 2024? Donald Trump lied over and over and over and over again. And Joe Biden couldn't respond to any of those lies. In fact, as The New York Times said, he spent much of the night with his mouth agape and his eyes darting back and forth. He couldn't fact check anything Donald Trump said. Not only that, he missed one lay-up after another after another. He couldn't respond effectively to Donald Trump trying to overthrow American democracy on January 6. He couldn't respond effectively to Donald Trump's continued stream of lies about his own record, and he couldn't even respond effectively on the issue of abortion where, for some reason, he darted wildly to the issue of immigration. And on immigration, as I said yesterday morning, any Democrat that can't turn to their Republican opponent and blast them for killing the strongest, toughest border bill in the history of America, drafted by a right-wing senator from Oklahoma, may not be up to the job. And so that's the question.’
Tons of distortions, there, but we will let that sit for now.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough says Biden “tragically did not rise to the occasion last night” in last night's #CNNDebate:
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 28, 2024
“I know people are waiting and say — oh, and David Plouffe, I have such respect for David Plouffe, he said, Donald Trump really turned off swing voters in — in a… pic.twitter.com/62xMrjEhVV
The cut off text:
‘I know people are waiting and say — oh, and David Plouffe, I have such respect for David Plouffe, he said, Donald Trump really turned off swing voters in — in a lot of focus groups once they saw him again. And that makes a lot of sense. But the door was open so many times. This race should not be close. We've been asking, why is this race close? We have no idea why this race is close. We saw last night why this race has been close. And why I fear Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States unless things change. I will say, Mika, the one thing that I know you believe, it may have been because he was sick. And I'm open to that fact. I'll just say, as I said on the show, I spent three hours with this man, maybe, back in March. Three hours, cogent, on top of the issues, on top of every issue around the world. And, last night, he simply was not on the biggest debate stage ever. And I think what surprised me and what surprised a lot of people very close to Joe Biden is the fact that this man always rises to the occasion and last night was — was sadly for him, and I believe for Democrats and this country, and, again, if you believe what's at stake in this election is what we believe is at stake, I'll even use the word tragically, tragically did not rise to the occasion last night.’
More Joe Scarborough argues a few minutes that it's not time to “panic” fter the #CNNDebate and Democrats only lost a “battle” but not the whole war yet:
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 28, 2024
Joe: “Well, and — and I know so many people watching do and agree with you. Again, I already said what I think of the man… pic.twitter.com/sq989FUWjQ
The cut off text:
Again, I already said what I think of the man personally and think of his job. I will — I will say, Willie, that, for me, I've been in politics long enough and I've been around politics long enough to know that, often, time doesn't heal all wounds. And, if this debate does not lead to serious discussions between Democrats and the President, then what you end up having is sort of this frozen political situation, where Democrats start convincing themselves two, three, five, ten days out that the guy in power, the guy that — that — that the people closest to power will suddenly, you know — they’ll — they'll start spinning and they'll believe their spin. So I don't think that it's panic. I'm the first one. We talk about Democratic bedwetting. Last night, that is not this. This is —’
Mika: ‘This is a five-alarm fire.’
Joe: ‘— this is like a war. We — we — we see a political battle for democracy, and this is like — this is like losing a major battle. Is it panic after a war where a major battle is lost to say, this general, we don't know if this general is up to leading the troops the rest of the way? I mean, again, these are just things that Democrats are going to have to answer over the next couple of days.’
So, a lot of what we mockingly call ‘bargaining stage’ on Morning Joe.
A lot of that going around in general.
And we won’t lie: We are enjoying every minute of it.
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