Media softball interviews with Democrats are nothing new, but MSNBC Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski’s Thursday interview with First Lady Jill Biden was on a whole different level. As Brzezinski “questioned” Biden about everything from GOP “cruelty” to how great Joe is to 2024 being about democracy itself to abortion she made your church league’s slow pitch pitcher look like Nolan Ryan.
Brzezinski began by sounding like she was one of Joe Biden’s speechwriters, “There have been Senate races, three presidential campaigns, eight years of your husband serving as vice president. Unthinkable personal loss, and challenge, and now democracy is on the ballot. What do you think when you hear people say, well, I just can't vote for Joe Biden this election? What is it they may not know about him at this point especially when the alternative seems to want to change this nation so radically?”
Biden was happy to go along with the free campaign advertising, “Throughout all of this, you know, I saw Joe as steady and calm and resilient, and actually I -- when we got here, I felt that he knew how to rebuild this country because he had rebuilt our family out of tragedy.”
On the matter of Republicans and their investigations into Hunter Biden, Brzezinski again sounded more like a Biden campaign staffer than an interviewer, “Does yet another one give you any pause thinking of, like, the personal health and well-being for both of you? The division in this country, the cruelty of MAGA Republicans against your family. Does any part of you once in a while think, ugh, maybe we bow out?”
Biden replied in a way that made it difficult to tell who the difference between interviewer and interviewee, “You know, that's why I want to go through yet another campaign, because I think as Joe says, democracy, our freedoms are what's on the line, and so Americans have a choice. You know, they can have strong, steady leadership, someone fighting for democracy, or they can choose chaos and division.”
Staying on the Hunter subject, Brzezinski wondered, “How have you been coping personally with the onslaught of accusations against your husband and your family, including and especially Hunter as the focus of a House Oversight Committee hearing holding, holding him in contempt, obsessing over him showing pictures of him during vulnerable moments in his battle with addiction on the floor of the House. This would crush any family.””
Again, Biden would respond by repeating Brzezinski’s language, “Mika, I think what they are doing to Hunter is cruel, and I'm really proud of how Hunter has rebuilt his life after addiction. You know, I love my son and it's hurt my grandchildren and that's what I'm so concerned about, that it's affecting their lives as well.”
Brzezinski then made the profound silly claim that, among other things, questioning Biden’s competency is a bridge too far, “What do you think when you hear Trump Republicans calling it the Biden crime family or--? One congresswoman, the Biden crime family sold out America, Marjorie Taylor Greene, he's a liar, he's mentally incompetent and let's not even talk about what ‘Let's Go Brandon’ means and U.S. Senators holding signs that say that.”
The first lady then made a curious claim of her own, “It’s hard to realize our country isn’t it? I mean to look at it, what we used to have and what the other side, the extremists have turned this country into, I mean, we would never see things like that, say, ten years ago.”
No, they would have just made slavery references or lead the media in Nazi references.
Circling back to the beginning, Brzezinski lamented, “So democracy is on the ballot and also something has been lost in this last four years or during your husband's presidency as a result of the Trump presidency and that is a woman's right to choose. Women’s health care. How important do you think that should be, in a factor, for all Americans voting in the next election? It feels like we've slid back. I mean, I can’t believe my daughters—”
Biden would reply by hyping Joe’s desire to “codify Roe,” but what has really slid back are MSNBC’s standards for interviewers if it was even possible slide back even further.
Here is a transcript for the January 11 show:
MSNBC Morning Joe
1/11/2024
8:45 AM ET
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: There have been Senate races, three presidential campaigns, eight years of your husband serving as vice president. Unthinkable personal loss, and challenge, and now democracy is on the ballot.
What do you think when you hear people say, well, I just can't vote for Joe Biden this election? What is it they may not know about him at this point especially when the alternative seems to want to change this nation so radically?
JILL BIDEN: Well, you know, Mika, when I was dating Joe, one of the things that drew me to him was his strength, and I -- at that point, he had been through the death of his wife and baby daughter in a car accident, and then, you know, later we experienced the death of our son to cancer.
Throughout all of this, you know, I saw Joe as steady and calm and resilient, and actually I -- when we got here, I felt that he knew how to rebuild this country because he had rebuilt our family out of tragedy and I think what people don't see is how hard Joe works every single day, that he gets up thinking what he can do for the American people, and he does that, you know, his job doesn't end when we just have dinner together at 7:00.
He's on the phone, and he's on the phone with leaders of foreign countries, and he's on the phone with his cabinet or he's on the phone with somebody who's lost their home because of a tornado or going through some personal problem. So I see that strength and that resilience and that steadiness every single day, and he's unflappable, and when I look at the man, you know, his integrity, his character has not changed, and he's unwavering. He's unflappable.
…
BRZEZINSKI: Potentially another four years in the White House--
BIDEN: Yes.
BRZEZINSKI: -- with everything you do here. Does yet another one give you any pause thinking of, like, the personal health and well-being for both of you? The division in this country, the cruelty of MAGA Republicans against your family. Does any part of you once in a while think, ugh, maybe we bow out?
BIDEN: You know, that's why I want to go through yet another campaign, because I think as Joe says, democracy, our freedoms are what's on the line, and so Americans have a choice. You know, they can have strong, steady leadership, someone fighting for democracy, or they can choose chaos and division.
…
BRZEZINSKI: How have you been coping personally with the onslaught of accusations against your husband and your family, including and especially Hunter as the focus of a House Oversight Committee hearing holding, holding him in contempt, obsessing over him –
BIDEN: Yes.
BRZEZINSKI: -- showing pictures of him during vulnerable moments in his battle with addiction on the floor of the House. This would crush any family.
BIDEN: Mika, I think what they are doing to Hunter is cruel, and I'm really proud of how Hunter has rebuilt his life after addiction. You know, I love my son and it's hurt my grandchildren and that's what I'm so concerned about, that it's affecting their lives as well.
BRZEZINSKI: What do you think when you hear Trump Republicans calling it the Biden crime family or--? One congresswoman, the Biden crime family sold out America, Marjorie Taylor Greene, he's a liar, he's mentally incompetent and let's not even talk about what "Let's Go Brandon" means and U.S. Senators holding signs that say that.
BIDEN: It’s hard to realize our country isn’t it? I mean to look at it, what we used to have and what the other side, the extremists have turned this country into, I mean, we would never see things like that, say, ten years ago.
…
BRZEZINSKI: So democracy is on the ballot and also something has been lost in this last four years or during your husband's presidency as a result of the Trump presidency and that is a woman's right to choose.
BIDEN: Yes.
BRZEZINSKI: Women’s health care. How important do you think that should be, in a factor, for all Americans voting in the next election? It feels like we've slid back. I mean, I can’t believe my daughters—
BIDEN: That’s why we have to keep fighting and we’re—and what Joe wants to do is to codify Roe and that's what we have to do. We have to keep fighting.
