MSNBC's Joe Scarborough trashes special counsel's report

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough attacked Special Counsel Robert Hur on “Morning Joe” Friday for saying in his report released Thursday that President Joe Biden has a “poor” memory.

Scarborough, a former Republican U.S. representative who is frequently outspoken against former President Donald Trump, said that Hur, “from Trump university,” was playing the role of a neurologist and a lawyer in the report. Hur concluded that Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified information but that criminal charges weren’t warranted.

“So bizarre. So many people immediately heard these random conclusions, irrelevant conclusions, politically charged, Trump-like ramblings,” Scarborough said on the program. “Why in the world would he put that in a report? His neurological assessment of Joe Biden and secondly why Merrick Garland would release garbage like that in the Justice Department.”

In the report, Hur stated that Biden couldn’t recall when his son Beau died and said a jury would be sympathetic to Biden, who was described as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

The president has faced concern from voters about his age and mental fitness, though top Democrats have danced around the issue and kept their concerns mostly private.

Scarborough, a reliable defender of Biden, has occasionally spoken privately with Biden since the 2020 election. Biden periodically plays Morning Joe in the background as he starts each day and the show has become a favorite among the administration. Scarborough interviewed Biden last year and his co-host and wife, Mika Brzezinski, sat down with first lady Jill Biden in January.

Biden Thursday night defended his mental capacity for the job and insisted that his memory is fine.

“I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve been president and I put this country back on its feet,” he said during a press conference.