Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall when Nicolle Wallace sees how her MSNBC "colleague" Joe Scarborough dissed her on Friday's Morning Joe?
Wallace is my personal least-favorite MSNBC host, edging out Joy Reid for that dishonor. But she's pleasing enough to the White House to score a major "get" with her interview of President Biden, in which he scalded the Supreme Court for, among other things, overturning racial bean-counting in college admissions.
But in discussing the interview, Scarborough didn't even credit Wallace by name, saying only that the interview occurred, "on MSNBC."
Before Wallace was able to toss to the commercial break at the end of the interview, Biden stood up and awkwardly walked off the set. The New York Post had a field day with that [see screencap]. And Scarborough predictably defended dazed and confused Biden's latest gaffe, calling the Post's mocking of Biden "just ridiculous." Yeah, yeah, he confuses Iraq with Ukraine, but he's fine.
Things got really interesting when Al Sharpton bragged that after the Wallace interview, Biden spent 10-15 minutes speaking with him. That led Scarborough to say this (in jest or in suckup mode?):
"You can see [Biden] in a hurry to get out of the chair and meet somebody really important. And we all know that person, Rev, was you."
Wow! So, in Scarborough's book, Sharpton is really important, but Wallace—whom he didn't even deign to mention by name—ain't. Got it, Joe! Enjoy that upcoming meal in the MSNBC dining room with Nicolle—might want to bring along a food taster!
They can never allow the notion that Biden's mentally lost a step, or maybe half a block. It's not like he had to leave because Nicolle's questions were too tough! Instead, Scarborough joked Biden was like his buddy Mike Barnicle, who hurries off the Morning Joe set in mid-sentence to go home to Boston. Sharpton lamely tried to suggest that Biden wasn't lost, the New York Post were the lost ones. The Post doesn't suck up to Sharpton like the New York Times usually does.
Joe Scarborough dissing fellow MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, saying Pres. Biden ditched her during an interview to speak with Al Sharpton, who is "really important," was sponsored in part by GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the meningitis B vaccine, Consumer Cellular, and Abbvie, maker of Rinvoq.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
6/30/23
6:00 am EDTJOE BIDEN [from 6-29-23 interview with Nicolle Wallace]: Take a look at overruling Roe v. Wade. Take a look at what they -- the decision today. Take a look at how it's -- how it's ruled on a number of issues that are, have been precedent for 50, 60 years, sometimes.
Across the board, the vast majority of the American people don't agree with a lot of the decisions this Court is making.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: That's President Joe Biden yesterday on MSNBC [note Scarborough describing the interview as have been on MSNBC, without mentioning Wallace], reacting to the Supreme Court overturning the use of affirmative action in college admissions. And you know, Willie, it was a fascinating interview.
Let me say, though. A little concerned. The New York Post, which as you know is Morning Joe's --
WILLIE GEIST: Oh yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: Newspaper of record . . . They have on the cover, of, of, of, of online, like, Joe Biden walking off set, right?And it's like he kind of got lost. Kind of like Barnicle. We'll ask him question, and he walks off in the middle of, of a question because he wants to get to the airport and get back to Boston.
But they act like, like Biden is confused. No! He's just, he's President of the United States! He said, thank you, and, I'm going to leave now. People do that to us all the time. And they don't end up on the front page of the New York Post.
I get it, he says, "God save the Queen." I mean, I'm a big Sex Pistols fan, too. I'm probably not going to end, though, a speech with that. He confuses Iraq and Ukraine. I get all of that stuff. But some of this stuff is just ridiculous.
AL SHARPTON: Let me say this, Joe, when you refer to the New York Post, when the president left the studio from Nicolle, he came and met with me for about 10 or 15 minutes. He probably was looking for where his meetings were going to be when he was leaving.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
SHARPTON: He was not stumbling around.
SCARBOROUGH: No.
SHARPTON: The Secret Service was directing him. I think [executive producer] Alex had the picture of him and I meeting here. So, he wasn't lost. I think the Post was lost.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, no. He wasn't lost at all. I mean, you can see, you can see again, him, him in a hurry to get out of the chair, get out and meet somebody really important. And we all know that person, Rev, was you.
