MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough on Wednesday refused to rule out the possibility that he would serve as Donald Trump’s running mate — reinforcing the belief of some NBC insiders that the “Morning Joe” co-host harbors a secret desire to join Trump’s ticket.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Scarborough spent several minutes trying to side step 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?” Scarborough said. “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. “Trump, you know, again, you always get me in trouble with these questions. So 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?”
While Scarborough’s response is hardly the declaration Hewitt and others interpret it to be, it’s notable that the “Morning Joe” host didn’t rule out the possibility outright.
For NBC News insiders, it also raises 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.”
But as to whether Scarborough actually harbors the ambition of serving as Trump’s running mate? That’s something only Scarborough knows. And he declined to comment on Wednesday.