In what might be the least surprising news of the day, Joe Scarborough said he will not be running for president.
Scarborough told the New York Times on Tuesday that he doesn’t anticipate a change of heart between now and 2016.
“I’m not running, and I’m not considering running,” he said. “I’m not making any Shermanesque statements, but I do not expect that to change.”
The MSNBC pundit told the Times he now just wishes the speculation would end because his ability to host the network’s three-hour morning talk show is “harmed when people start thinking I’m going to put on a shield and pick up a sword and start fighting in their arena.”
That part is fairly laughable. As the Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone rightly pointed out, Scarborough and his inner circle are almost entirely to blame for fueling the 2016 gossip.
On Monday, fresh off Scarborough’s trip to the Northeast Republican Leadership Conference in New Hampshire, “Morning Joe” ran what basically amounted to a campaign ad for the host.
Scarborough himself said on the program that the chatter is “fun speculation.” It’s been going on for a while.
The Daily Caller’s Alex Pappas reported in February that people close to Scarborough were certain that he was considering a White House bid.
Two days after that story ran, Scarborough told the conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt that he wouldn’t “rule anything out.”
Ultimately, Scarborough’s name was removed from the NRLC’s straw poll last weekend, but he boasted that he signed “hundreds” of copies of his latest book, “The Right Path.”
This has all followed a nearly identical pattern to the last time Scarborough was fanned speculation of a presidential run, which just so happened to coincide with the release of his last book.
