MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, along with Bloomberg Politics Managing Editor Mark Halperin, argued that President Obama will support Joe Biden over Hillary Clinton if he runs for president, and that the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s email are part of the reason why on Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
During an interview with White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, he answered a question on whether President Obama wants Joe Biden to run for president and would support him with, “what the president has long said, is that choosing Joe Biden to be the running mate, was the smartest decision he’d ever made in politics. And I think that even given the high expectations that the president had for Vice President Biden, Vice President Biden, over the last 6 1/2 years, has exceeded them. He is somebody who’s a champion of the middle class. He is somebody who has decades of experience in foreign policy, and, on a regular basis, this administration and this country benefits from the kinds of personal relationships that Joe Biden has built around the world.” And “Joe Biden served the country and this president very well as vice president. To be honest with you, I don’t have a whole lot of insight into what Vice President Biden is thinking about right now. He’s indicated for quite some time that he would make a decision at the end of the summer. And here we are at the — what is today, the third day in August? And it sounds like we’re nearing the deadline that he has set for himself. But look, he’s going take all of the time that he needs to make this decision, and I think he’s earned the opportunity to take as much time as he needs. And if he chooses to run, he’ll have a strong case to make. But we’ve got some other Democratic candidates in the race that also have quite a strong case to make.”
After the interview with Earnest finished, Brzezinski remarked, “That’s a yes.” And wondered how Obama couldn’t support Biden if he ran.
Scarborough agreed, stating, “that’s a yes,” and wondering how the president couldn’t support his own vice president. He added, “He says it’s the best decision he’s ever made in his life.”
Halperin then said, “Don’t underestimate the degree to which people in President Obama’s orbit have taken note of the Clinton Foundation and the Hillary Clinton email thing and thought ‘Huh.'” Halperin also characterized the White House’s reaction to Clinton’s actions as “outrage” in private.
He concluded the discussion with, “Joe Biden doesn’t have a server or a family foundation.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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