There is "widespread" anger within the Democratic Party, MSNBC's Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough said, at Joe Biden's campaign leaders for keeping the president "in a bubble" as his reelection campaign flounders and his party divides.
"The anger that I hear is not at Joe Biden. The anger I hear [is] at the people that are keeping him in a bubble," Scarborough said on Thursday’s Morning Joe show, reportedly one of Biden’s favorite programs.
"That is the real anger. Let me tell you, that’s not just the anger from inside Congress," Scarborough added. "That is anger from inside the political, his own political camp. It is widespread. Joe Biden deserves better. He deserves better than he is getting from those closest to him."
Scarborough's comments came the morning after the White House announced President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 and would fly to his Delaware home to isolate. Biden remained adamant about staying in the race until Wednesday when he conceded he would reevaluate his campaign in the case of a "medical condition." The octogenarian tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday evening just before his scheduled appearance at a UnidosUS event in Las Vegas.
Since Biden's incoherence in the first presidential debate against Republican nominee Donald Trump on June 27 put his mental capabilities under the spotlight, Democratic leaders—including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), and House Democratic Caucus head Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.)—have called on the 81-year-old incumbent to withdraw his reelection bid. Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime ally of Biden, said she would do "everything in her power" to get Biden off the presidential ticket.
"You know, it’s really incumbent on people that are around Joe Biden to step up at this point and help the president. Help the man they love, and do the right thing. This is not going to end well if it continues to drag out," Scarborough said.
A poll released on Thursday and conducted after Saturday's near-assassination of Trump shows the former president ahead of Biden nationally and in all seven anticipated swing states.
"Recent polling shows Biden losing support more significantly than Trump gaining it since the attempted assassination," the poll's director Spencer Kimball said.