MSNBC's Joe Scarborough bashes Julián Castro for 'cheap shot' at Biden's memory

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro's debate swipe at former Vice President Joe Biden's memory was a big miss, according to MSNBC's Morning Joe.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski slammed Castro Friday after he questioned Biden's memory at the third Democratic debate and asked if he "already" forgot what he said "two minutes ago" during a discussion on health care. This attack, Brzezinski argued, was a "low blow."

"Castro essentially implied that Biden is senile," Brzezinski said. "... There were so many things wrong with that."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Scarborough agreed, calling this a "cheap shot," a "low blow," and "ageism," concluding that "it is hard to imagine how Julián Castro could have looked much worse last night."

Of course, there was also the issue that, as the hosts pointed out, Castro appears to have been wrong. Castro has since argued his swipe was, in fact, correct and that he wasn't trying to go after Biden's age.

But the 2020 Democrat has been taking post-debate fire for this, including from some of his fellow candidates, with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) saying it reminded her of something President Trump would tweet. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), however, has defended Castro, saying, "there are definitely moments when you listen to Joe Biden and you just wonder." Brendan Morrow