President Joe Biden appeared on the Morning Joe show on July 8. The MSNBC show is said to be one of the President’s favourite shows but his behaviour on the show was very uncharacteristic of him and brought his nemesis Donald Trump to mind instead.
His appearance and interview on the show was aimed at instilling confidence in Capitol Hill Democrats who were planning to ask him to step aside from running as president for a second term.
However he came across as quite brash and some of his statements sounded quite pompous and reminiscent of something Donald Trump might say.
Biden told the shows hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski;
”I’m getting so frustrated by the elites… in the party. With any of these guys who don’t think I should run – run against me. Go ahead, announce for president. Challenge me at the convention.”
That last part and most of the interview sounded unusually confrontational, especially the bit about asking the elites in the party to challenge him at the convention.
Biden also bragged about the “large and enthusiastic” crowds that gathered to see him at the rallies and on the issue of the use of a teleprompter he said, “I did it all extemporaneously.”
Biden also pointed out that Trump had consistently lied and he was “reading from the list of lies” spoken by Trump during the debate.
“Look at my career, and I have not had many of those nights. It was a terrible night, and I really regret it happened. I’ve been out on the road so much all over the country, and while Trump is riding around in the golf cart,” said Biden.
“I’m not getting any of what I was told. I wanted to make sure I was right, that the average voter out there still wanted Joe Biden,” he said. “And I’m confident they do,” said Biden during the interview.
During the interview Brzezinski also brought up opinions formed by the New York Times as well those stated by Democratic Party people like David Axelrod (who was Obama’s adviser during his administration) which all called for him to step aside.
Biden response to that was, “I don’t care what those big names said. They were wrong in 2020. They were wrong in 2022 about the red wave. They’re wrong in 2024 and come out with me and watch people react. You make a judgement.”
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are set to be formally renominated later this month in a virtual roll call before next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.