Joe Scarborough calls out NBC’s Lester Holt over ‘phony moral relativism’ in Biden interview
'Morning Joe' host Joe Scarborough criticized NBC’s Lester Holt for asking President Biden about his political rhetoric absent of ‘context.’
"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough swiped at his colleague Lester Holt on Tuesday, suggesting that the NBC News anchor engaged in "phony moral relativism" when he asked President Biden about his anti-Trump rhetoric.
During an interview that was released on Monday, Holt asked Biden about politically charged statements he has made about Trump, including a comment he made to donors about putting Trump in a "bullseye."
Biden admitted that his comment was a "mistake" and stressed that he was talking about shifting focus toward Trump's leadership failures.
"It was a mistake to use the word … I meant focus on him: Focus on what he's doing, focus on one, on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told," Biden said.
BIDEN GETS TESTY WITH NBC'S LESTER HOLT OVER UNFAVORABLE MEDIA COVERAGE: 'WHAT'S WITH YOU GUYS?'
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough critiqued NBC News' Lester Holt on Tuesday for his line of questioning about political rhetoric while interviewing President Biden (Noam Galai/Getty Images for Global Citizen/Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
Scarborough, who works for NBC's cable affiliate MSNBC, took issue with Holt's line of questioning. He said that while it was an important question, Holt's framing lacked context—such as prior instances of other concerning rhetoric levied against other politicians on both sides of the aisle.
"I think anyone would have asked that question," Scarborough said. "But to ask that question without any context about the politically violent rhetoric that Republicans have been engaged in for close to a decade now."
Scarborough later admitted he was "shocked" by Holt's question and said it appeared to be a sort of "phony moral relativism."
DEMOCRATS, MEDIA DEMAND BIDEN DO MORE INTERVIEWS, PRESS CONFERENCES AMID DEBATE FALLOUT
President Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on Sunday, July 14, about the assassination attempt against Trump. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
Earlier in the segment, Scarborough criticized his own network after his show was left off the air a day earlier in the aftermath of the assassination attempt against Trump.
"We were told, in no uncertain terms, on Sunday evening, that there was going to be one news feed across all NBC News channels yesterday," Scarborough said, referring in part to NBC's parent network and his home at MSNBC, the left-leaning cable affiliate.
"That was going to be one news feed across all NBC News channels. That we were going to stay as a network in breaking news mode throughout all day yesterday. That did not happen. We don't know why that didn't happen. Our team was not given a good answer as to why that didn't happen, but it didn't happen."
Fox News' Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
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