MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday issued a wake-up call to President Donald Trump and his excuse-makers: He's sleeping on the job more than "Sleepy Joe" aka former President Joe Biden, the hosts say.
Trump's latest apparent visit from the sandman happened during a maternal healthcare event at the White House on Monday. In one interval he appeared to snooze for nearly 20 seconds — but the White House dubiously claimed he was "blinking, you absolute moron."
"That's a very long blink!" host Joe Scarborough joked. "That's the longest blink I've ever seen," Jonathan Lemire chimed in.
But when the mockery subsided, Scarborough said when Biden closed his eyes for a few seconds at a memorial for Maui fire victims in 2023, Trump and his supporters jumped on the false assertion that he was sleeping and went "absolutely crazy" and called him "Sleepy Joe."
"This isn't the first time he's appeared to be taking a catnap in the Oval Office," Scarborough said of Trump. "So again, you know, [Ronald] Reagan did it. People do it. OK, that's fine. But you can't just go on and on and on about Sleepy Joe, Sleepy Joe, Sleepy Joe, and then sleep even more in the White House than your predecessor did."
Lemire concurred. "With increased frequency President Trump appears to be 'blinking' at great length on camera in the Oval Office in front of a lot of people, which is raising some questions about him and his age and such," he said. "But you're right," Lemire continued.
The co-host showed a clip of then-candidate Trump sneering that "You'll never see me sleeping in front of cameras." That footage has not aged well.
