Joe Scarborough is now trying to explain away his past over-the-top praise of Joe Biden’s mental acuity, and let’s just say it’s not going well. In a revealing appearance on “Next Up with Mark Halperin,” Scarborough tried — and failed — to justify why he repeatedly described Biden as being at his “best” despite the president’s well-documented cognitive stumbles.
Advertisement
Back in March 2024, Scarborough infamously defended Biden’s mental acuity on MSNBC. “I’ve said it for years now: he’s cogent,” he insisted. “But I undersold him when I said he was cogent. He’s far beyond cogent. In fact, I think he’s better than he’s ever been intellectually, analytically.”
“Start your tape right now, because I’m about to tell you the truth,” Scarborough ranted on. “And if you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I’ve known him for years. The Brzezinskis have known him for 50 years. If it weren’t the truth, I wouldn’t say it.”
Halperin pressed him directly on this past praise. “Looking back at that, do you say, ‘Well, it was misleading to say ‘best Biden ever,’ without caveating it and say, ‘Except on the days when he’s not the best Biden ever’?”
Scarborough’s response was pathetic. “Well, but I… but, but I never, I never saw those days personally,” he stammered.
Really? Is that the standard? If you didn’t see it personally, it just didn’t happen? I never saw Biden’s decline personally, either. But I knew. We all did. Because we saw the videos. As, of course, Scarborough did too.
And Halperin called him out for it.
“Well, you did,” he shot back. “You saw him address a dead congresswoman, and you saw him in South Carolina… I can show you the RNC clip reels. There were plenty of days in public when he was not ‘the best Biden’ ever.”
Advertisement
Cornered, Scarborough finally conceded, “Yeah, he stu— he stumbled and… he stumbled and bumbled around, Mark. I mean, yeah, he certainly did. Uh, Donald Trump did. Other politicians did.”
Recommended: The Biden Autopen Scandal May Be Getting Worse
Ah yes, the “But Trump!” defense. Democrats tried and failed to make Donald Trump’s mental health an issue in 2016, throughout his first term, and again in 2024. It didn’t work. Why? because people could see clearly that Trump was perfectly sane and cogent. Biden on the other hand? He clearly wasn’t.
Scarborough then launched into a rambling justification, comparing Biden’s slip-ups to Trump’s media portrayals. “I’ve been very critical of Donald Trump,” he said. “And when I leave, I have a better understanding… if Donald Trump is losing it like people have said through the years or not. Am I going to look at a clip that’s gone viral and pay more attention to that than two and a half, three hours I had with a guy one-on-one?”
He added, “Are some of the clips bad? Yeah, they certainly are bad. I can understand why people would see that without the context and say that there was a problem with that.”
Despite the obvious decline that even many Democrats have reluctantly acknowledged, Scarborough insisted, “Based on what I saw with Biden, based on the time I spent with Biden, based on the hundreds of hours that I talked to people who talked to Biden… I’m just not going to freak out and melt down on one or two clips here or there.”
Advertisement
He even went so far as to claim that Biden’s fumbling “didn’t seem to me to get in the way of Joe Biden being able to analyze the most important issues” and bizarrely concluded that Biden had “a better grasp” than most of his critics “or certainly did when I spoke with him.”
Seriously?
NEW: Joe Scarborough repeatedly invokes Trump’s name as he rambles for 3 minutes defending his “best Biden ever” comment
“[Biden] stumbled and bumbled around, Mark. I mean, yeah, he certainly did. Donald Trump did. Other politicians did … and it’s actually the same case as… pic.twitter.com/ilGPoT0dze
— Jason Cohen
(@JasonJournoDC) May 20, 2025
In the end, it was a long, desperate attempt to reframe years of sycophantic praise as nuanced insight. But all it really did was reinforce the obvious: Scarborough saw what the rest of us saw and chose to spin it.
The mainstream media’s attempts to gaslight Americans about Biden’s cognitive state show exactly why independent journalism matters. Get unlimited access to our uncensored coverage and exclusive content by becoming a VIP member today. Use the code FIGHT for 60% off and help us keep holding the media accountable.
