On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough attempted a two-part defense of Joe Biden having yesterday called Trump supporters "garbage."

Part One: Try to bury the remark. In his opening gush over Kamala's supposedly "compelling" speech at the Ellipse last night, Scarborough said:

She kept talking about finding common ground. She kept talking about compromise. She kept talking about being the president of all Americans, even those Americans who vote against her, and what a marked contrast.

There are so many distractions in this campaign. Other news channels will get distracted with people who are not running in this campaign. What matters is what the two people who are running in this campaign are saying.

Nice try at obfuscation, Joe. But let's translate what you said: Fox News will get "distracted" by Biden's "garbage" line, but not us! We'll focus on the pearls of wisdom from Kamala and Walz!

Part Two: When forced to address the controversy, laugh it off. When Jonathan Lemire later raised Biden's "garbage" line, Scarborough put on a big, phony smile [see screencap] and emitted a faux chuckle, dismissively saying "of course." He then tried to shift to controversial things Trump says, claiming that "all of his people immediately go to it and brush it off and explain it away or just completely ignore it."

In a risible attempt to prove that Biden didn't mean what he said, Scarborough noted that Biden "immediately afterward said no, that's not what I meant. I was talking about the comedian."

Uh, yeah. You can be sure that his handlers in the wings were horrified to hear Biden's "garbage" slur on Trump supporters. So naturally they promptly put out a "clarification" in his name. After the controversy exploded, did Scarborough honestly expect Biden to double down? "Yeah, I meant it. Trump supporters. They're garbage: garbage! Every last one of them! On my word as a Biden!"

One glaring, telling omission in the segment. Biden's actual comment was never shown. Instead of rolling the readily-available video, Lemire read from the transcript of Biden's remark. Why? Because people viewing the video would see that Biden was talking about all Trump's supporters.

If Trump had ever said something similar, Scarborough would be running it on a continuous loop!

And wouldn't you have loved to be a fly on the wall when Kamala was informed about Biden's comment, and how it has partly overshadowed her big speech? We can imagine that Kamala "unburdened" herself of a few choice words!

Here's the transcript.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
10/30/24
6:03 am EDT

JOE SCARBOROUGH: So I will say, in contrast to what Donald Trump has said, it was, I thought it was compelling. 

I loved the message last night, and she kept going back to it, Willie. She kept going back to how people that disagree with her are not the enemy. She doesn't want to put them in jail. She wants to put them around the table and listen to them. She kept talking about finding common ground. She kept talking about compromise. She kept talking about being the president of all Americans, even those Americans who vote against her, and what a marked contrast.

There are so many distractions in this campaign. Other news channels will get distracted with people who were not running in this campaign. What matters is what the two people who are running in this campaign are saying. 

. . . 

JONATHAN LEMIRE: And as you mentioned, President Biden last night kind of kicked off a firestorm himself. He was on a Zoom with Latino supporters, urging them to vote early. He addressed the Puerto Rico comments.

And what he said was, I'll just read a little bit here from the transcript. He says that I know Puerto Ricans from my hometown state of Delaware. they're good, decent honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American."

Now, some on the right have seized that comment to mean his supporters, meaning Donald Trump's supporters, meaning all Trump supporters, half the country. 

The White House is saying, no, no, there's an apostrophe there. He's talking about "his supporter," meaning the comedian. His comments are unconscionable and un-American.

That's the controversy last night. The president took to Twitter soon after the Zoom, tried to clean it up, clarify that he was not talking about all the Americans -- half the American public

But it is certainly a controversy that the White House and the Harris campaign are dealing with today, as the right tries to make it -- we're showing the tweet here from the president: "His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable," the president writes, "That's all I meant to say."

The president said something, immediately tried to clarify it, Joe. But it's certainly a story on the right, who are trying to paint this to be the next basket of deplorables.

SCARBOROUGH: [Big smile, chuckles] Well, of course. Donald Trump says shocking things every day, and Fox News and all of his apologists in the Republican party immediately go to it and brush it off, explain it away, or just completely ignore it.

Here, they're trying to make a firestorm out of something that, again, if you look at it. You see what he said immediately afterward, which Donald Trump didn't say.

He immediately afterward said no, that's not what I meant. I was talking about the comedian and people who supported that kind of talk.