Biden needs to start calling out Trump’s accusations
President Joe Biden has largely stayed quiet during the ongoing investigation into Donald Trump, and the “Morning Joe” crew thinks it’s the wrong move. On Friday, MSNBC hosts argued that Biden needs to start making public the allegations his opponent is facing, otherwise it would be “like bringing a bottle of wine to a shooting.”
The discussion arose with regard to a current comment in the New York Times, in which author Charles Blow argues that “dignified silence against Trump doesn’t work.” And by and large, the “Morning Joe” hosts and panelists wholeheartedly agreed.
“It’s not like we’re talking about a personal scandal with Donald Trump, which is too cheesy, but just talking about the economy,” said Willie Geist. “As Charles writes, we are talking about the foundations of our democracy.”
He continued: “That this man who led an attempted coup against the government, this man who took classified documents about military secrets to his beach club, is the framework that Joe Biden and his campaign will have to overcome at some point.”
Panelist Eugene Robinson noted that this point should have come already, but acknowledged that under normal circumstances “it is a problem for a sitting president to comment and express an opinion on an ongoing criminal case.” Still, he argued he, these are not normal circumstances. And Blow immediately repeated that.
“At what point does the person who is running literally commit to a platform of defending and protecting democracy, not the greatest threat to that democracy?” Blow said, adding that this idea appealed to him just “crazy”.
Host Scarborough gave a hearty “Amen” to Blow’s words, saying that if he were the one running against Trump, he would bring up the allegations at literally every campaign stop and in every conversation he had.
New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay added that Biden’s silence is actively working against him at this point.
“I mean, it’s like bringing a bottle of wine to a gunfight,” Gay said. “And I think there’s only part of what Charles is saying here: You have to stand up to a tyrant! You have to stand up to a tyrant.”
She continued: “And Donald Trump, in my opinion, essentially depends on the Democrats, and if the president acts like that, it’s business as usual.” And so the silence speaks volumes, the silence becomes the elephant in the room. Well, it actually doesn’t accomplish what I think the president and the Democrats needed to accomplish.”
You can watch the full discussion of Morning Joe in the video above.