‘Morning Joe’: Democratic Presidential Candidates Made Obama A Villain, Trashed His Legacy

MSNBC’s Morning Joe strongly criticized Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate for attacking former President Barack Obama. Co-host Joe Scarborough was particularly scathing of some candidates’ attempts to attack front runner Joe Biden by linking him to Obama.

“I’m wondering why people who want votes from Democrats spent all last night trashing Barack Obama, saying support of Barack Obama’s signature plan, the Affordable Care Act, the greatest step forward toward universal health care in the history of the American republic, I’m wondering why they were trashing that and the defense of that as Republican talking points. It is insanity, my friends,” Scarborough said.

“I’m so confused. I’m so confused,” Scarborough went on. “You have Barack Obama, by the way, for the record, the most popular Democrat alive, the first Democrat since Franklin Delano Roosevelt did it in 1932 and 1936 and again in ‘40 and ‘44, to win the majority of the votes, Obama, the first to do that, and you have people trashing Obamacare and the support of it as Republican talking points.”

“And then they’re trashing his immigration policies which Donald Trump and the Republicans attacked and used to elect Donald Trump as being too conservative. This was sort of — we were sort of in a never never land last night in that debate. It was bizarre. Just judging from what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard since that debate, a lot of the Democrats are pretty pissed off and they’re saying if you’re thinking you’re getting my vote by trashing Barack Obama’s legacy, you have another thing coming.”

Regular contributor Mike Barnicle agreed.

“It was a pretty unique strategy that we saw unfold last night, going after Barack Obama,” he said. “And it certainly opened my eyes. I had always thought that coverage of preexisting conditions was pretty good. I always thought taking care of catastrophic illnesses was good. I always thought taking care of your kids on your healthcare plan until they were 25 or 26 years of age – that was really good. I liked all that.”

“Woe is me. I was wrong. Barack Obama is a villain here. And the only thing I can conclude after watching them last night that is if Hillary Clinton and the Democrats had given the same volume of attack, the same artillery brought to a candidate, as they brought to Joe Biden last night. If they brought that to Donald Trump in 2016 during debates there would have been no democratic debate last night, Hillary Clinton would have been president. Instead, I watched all night long in disbelief – disbelief as nearly every one of them on that stage went after Joe Biden/Barack Obama.”

“Disbelief,” Scarborough agreed.

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.