Morning Joe: Trump Makes Me Miss George W. Bush, Makes James Buchanan Look Good

Morning Joe‘s Joe Scarborough joked with presidential historian Jon Meacham Thursday morning about how bad President Donald Trump has been. Speaking about former Vice President Joe Biden’s electoral prospects, they compared him favorably to past presidents.

“Biden in ’87, in ’88 would always take the bait,” Scarborough said. “Someone would accuse him of not being the smartest guy and he jumped back and said things he always regretted, 2008 the same thing. We were talking about Joe Biden and is he too old? And Jack said, and Mika later on was talking to Jill about this who agreed. In this case, older does seem to equal wiser, and perhaps makes a difference for him this year that he is older and wiser and has learned from two campaigns, like Ronald Reagan learned from two failed attempts at the presidency.”

If Biden compared favorably to the late Ronald Reagan, Trump did not bare comparison to his predecessors.

“And the other thing is, most Americans, for better or for worse, and I would say for better, don’t follow the public life of the nation in as detailed a way as we all do,” Jon Meacham said. “And so Biden to them represents a working class — white working class wing of the Obama years. They think of Obama, Obama looks pretty good right now. Of course all previous presidents now look like Cicero, but that’s OK.”

“James Buchanan’s family, by the way, very, very pleased with Trump’s performance thus far,” Scarborough joked.

Buchanan was president immediately before the Civil War and is widely considered one of the country’s worst and least effective leaders.

“As ‘43 has said in public, ‘Don’t look so bad now,'” Meacham said, referencing George W. Bush.

“Love that guy. We miss him. We miss him badly,” Scarborough said.

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.