MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Urges Biden’s Advisers to ‘Do the Right Thing’

Joe Scarborough, the former congressman, ally of President Biden and influential host of the MSNBC show “Morning Joe,” on Thursday morning all but called on Mr. Biden’s aides to help him exit the race.

Mr. Scarborough has been blunt that the president’s debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump on June 27 was calamitous but has also interviewed Mr. Biden since and was sympathetic to him in the days following the debate. On Thursday, the host cited polling for the president that has taken a massive slide and fund-raising that has disappeared.

He did not lay the blame at Mr. Biden’s feet, but instead at what he described as a “bubble” of people around the president who were shielding him.

The host’s remarks came after a day of cascading events, including reports that Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, had both spoken to Mr. Biden and warned that his re-election chances were becoming dire, and that Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, had bluntly told the president that Democratic candidates were likely to lose down-ballot races. On the same day, California Senate candidate and Pelosi ally Adam Schiff publicly called on Mr. Biden to leave the race.

On “Morning Joe” Thursday, Mr. Scarborough spoke into the camera about the message Mr. Biden’s team was receiving, “when you’re told by members of Congress that they’re losing, they’re going to lose the House and the Senate if he stays on the ticket.” He added that people were telling the Biden team that their swing-state poll numbers are in peril and that money from campaign donors has dried up.

“It’s really incumbent on people that are around Joe Biden to step up at this point and