Joe Scarborough: Biden Benefits from Having Less Political Baggage than Clinton

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough argued on Tuesday that former Vice President Joe Biden is performing well against President Donald Trump because he doesn’t have the same political baggage as Hillary Clinton. New polling shows Biden leading Trump nationally by 10 points.

Importantly, polling shows Biden is more trustworthy than Trump by 47% to 31%.

“We commented on this before the election in 2016,” Scarborough said. “Donald Trump’s honest and trustworthy numbers were very low. Devastating for any candidate running for president, except for the fact he was running against Hillary Clinton.”

“Of course, Hillary Clinton, and Clinton supporters would say, that her numbers were as low as Donald Trump’s in the honest and trustworthy category because Republicans had been attacking her nonstop for 30 years.”

“I just want to note, as we look at these honest and trustworthy numbers, that the reason why, right now, you can’t really compare the numbers between Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger at this stage of the race, like you did four years ago, is because these numbers right here.”

“Donald Trump was running against a candidate who, again, had a lot of political baggage, had been in political war nonstop for 30 years.”

“You don’t see that with Joe Biden. His honest and trustworthy numbers, obviously 16 points better than Donald Trump. And on the one issue that Donald Trump cares about the most, being seen as strong, it’s basically a draw.”

Biden has been in public life for decades, including as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the contentious confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.