Joe Scarborough said he doesn't think even Donald Trump still believes he won the election.
"You just -- you know, you just kind of get the sense that President Trump is going through the motions but, you know, his heart doesn't seem to be in it. He knows it's over. so what is he doing?" he said.
"Is he playing for that announcement that he's going to be running again in 2024? What's going on inside the White House?"
Jonathan Lemire said Trump shows no signs of giving up, "at least not yet."
"To your question, Joe, there's no expectation within the White House, within the president's inner circle that is going to change, that Joe Biden won't be sworn in on January 20th. This is about projecting the fight. This is about sowing doubts about the election. Yes, this is about plotting whatever his next move may be.
"He did for the first time publicly say on Thanksgiving night that yes, he would leave the White House when his term was up. If the Electoral College -- he said, if, the Electoral College did indeed give this race to Joe Biden, which he said would be a mistake, but everyone around the president knows that will happen.
"It's about what comes next. First of all, this weekend, we had the president suggesting that he will go to Georgia to campaign for those Senate runoffs, which is being met with a split reaction from Republicans. Some who fear he will spend a 90-minute rally criticizing the governor or the Georgia secretary of state, a Republican, who he's talked about and not help the GOP candidates there as they try to hang on to the majority.
"At the very least, Joe, what I'm told is even if he doesn't officially announce a 2024 bid in the coming weeks, he's going to tease along. He's going to suggest he's looking at it because he wants to keep his viability up. He of course upon leaving office is going to want to make some money. There's some suggestion he'll attach himself to a media venture, there is speculation it could be Newsmax, an up and coming Fox rival.
"He won't cede the stage quietly. but as long as he believes that he can string this out and more people are talking about him, that will damage the Biden presidency and freeze the GOP field for 2024."
Kind of brilliant, actually. Those Republicans should have voted for impeachment, and now they wouldn't have this political millstone around their necks. Ha, ha!
GOP presidential wanna-bes will be reduced to cryptic tweets and anemic fundraising, and it's a beautiful thing.
