MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough referred to Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden as “Teflon Joe” on Monday in analyzing a new poll showing the former vice president on top of the 2020 field, while pointing to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) continued “political bleeding.”
“Once again, [it] had Joe Biden on top, and once again, and I will say this has been the biggest surprise for me over the past month, Elizabeth Warren continuing to drop, minus 8 [points],” Scarborough said on “Morning Joe.”
“And I just sit and look at those numbers and say, ‘Is she really losing all of this support because she put out a very progressive program?’ ” he asked, referring to Warren’s “Medicare for All” plan, which included a proposed cost of $20.5 billion in new federal spending.
“In the Democratic Party, I would not have expected this political bleeding to continue, but it does in just about every poll, and look at Teflon Joe. Teflon Joe just staying up there, Jack,” he added.
“Teflon Joe, Durable Joe … call it what you want to call it, but he has weathered some storms, Joe, during this primary,” noted Adrienne Elrod, a spokeswoman for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. “And so far he’s stayed on top consistently.”
“He’s also the only candidate in this race, I know we talked about this many times on the show, but he’s the only candidate running in the Democratic primary who can really attract a diverse electorate,” she added.
The Fox News poll released Sunday showed 30 percent of Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents saying they support Biden, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) a close second at 20 percent. Warren only garnered 13 percent support, compared to 21 percent in the same poll last month.
Biden and Sanders, along with Warren, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), billionaire Tom Steyer and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, will face off in the sixth Democratic presidential primary debate in Los Angeles on Thursday.