MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough refused to rule out the possibility of serving as Donald Trump’s running mate on Wednesday night — until he was pressed by reporters to explain his ambiguity.
In an interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt, Scarborough spent several minutes trying to sidestep questions about whether or not he would accept such an offer from Trump, should the GOP frontrunner win the nomination.
“I don’t know where you get that from?” said Scarborough, co-host of “Morning Joe.”
“You always get me in trouble with questions like this, Hugh. … Nobody’s going to ask me to do anything but, like, take them to softball practice and baseball practice.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think he would ask me,” Scarborough later said in response to Hewitt’s persistent questioning. “Let’s move on.”
Hewitt didn’t move on, and ultimately forced Scarborough to respond by saying he would do “just about anything to try to get the White House back,” which Hewitt interpreted as a “yes.”
“No, it’s not a yes,” Scarborough replied. “You’re telling me this is why I walked away from dinner with my kids, to not answer this question?”
Scarborough declined to comment on Wednesday. But on Twitter, he had fun while closing the door on the possibility Hewitt raised: “I rule it out. Now on to more important things. What’s REM’s best album? 1/ Murmur 2/ Reckoning or 3/ Fables?”
And in another tweet: “Ok. Responded 5 times. Hugh does this every few months. Next month I’ll be lined up to coach the Maple Leafs.”
Scarborough’s on-air response was hardly the declaration that Hewitt and others interpreted it to be. But it’s notable that the “Morning Joe” host didn’t initially rule out the possibility outright.
For NBC News insiders, it raised questions about what they interpret as Scarborough’s favoritism toward the Republican frontrunner. Scarborough has made no secret of the fact that he’s close to Trump, and often speaks favorably about him on “Morning Joe.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with Joe Scarborough’s tweets after the Hewitt interview.
