Joe Scarborough Says He Once Asked Trump 'Can You Read?'
- 6 years ago
Joe Scarborough noted in a Washington Post op-ed that he once asked President Trump if he could read.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, in a Washington Post op-ed, has revealed a rather peculiar exchange he had with then-candidate Donald Trump in 2015.
Scarborough says, he asked Trump after a "bumbling" debate performance, "Can you read?"
His question was followed by an "awkward silence," and Scarborough then said to Trump, "I'm serious Donald. Do you read? If someone wrote you a one-page paper on a policy, could you read it?"
The Morning Joe host further notes in the op-ed, "Taken aback, Trump quietly responded that he could while holding up a Bible given to him by his mother. He then joked that he read it all the time."
Scarborough's piece was published on Thursday while Michael Wolff's book 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,' was dominating the news cycle.
Parts of the book portray the president as being unfocused and impervious to reason.
"He didn't process information in any conventional sense. He didn't read. He didn't really even skim," Wolff claims in the book. "He trusted his own expertise — no matter how paltry or irrelevant — more than anyone else's."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders slammed the book's assertions during a press briefing Thursday.
"If [Trump] was unfit, he probably wouldn't be sitting there and wouldn't have defeated the most qualified group of candidates the Republican Party has ever seen," Sanders said. "This is an incredibly strong and good leader."
Trump himself took to Twitter on Saturday amid questions about his fitness for office.
"Throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart," the president tweeted. "I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!"
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, in a Washington Post op-ed, has revealed a rather peculiar exchange he had with then-candidate Donald Trump in 2015.
Scarborough says, he asked Trump after a "bumbling" debate performance, "Can you read?"
His question was followed by an "awkward silence," and Scarborough then said to Trump, "I'm serious Donald. Do you read? If someone wrote you a one-page paper on a policy, could you read it?"
The Morning Joe host further notes in the op-ed, "Taken aback, Trump quietly responded that he could while holding up a Bible given to him by his mother. He then joked that he read it all the time."
Scarborough's piece was published on Thursday while Michael Wolff's book 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,' was dominating the news cycle.
Parts of the book portray the president as being unfocused and impervious to reason.
"He didn't process information in any conventional sense. He didn't read. He didn't really even skim," Wolff claims in the book. "He trusted his own expertise — no matter how paltry or irrelevant — more than anyone else's."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders slammed the book's assertions during a press briefing Thursday.
"If [Trump] was unfit, he probably wouldn't be sitting there and wouldn't have defeated the most qualified group of candidates the Republican Party has ever seen," Sanders said. "This is an incredibly strong and good leader."
Trump himself took to Twitter on Saturday amid questions about his fitness for office.
"Throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart," the president tweeted. "I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!"