‘Absolutely extraordinary’: Scarborough reacts to new poll showing Democrats’ midterm lead

MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough reacted to what he called an “absolutely extraordinary” new poll from The New York Times and Siena University, which found Democrats leading Republicans nationally ahead of November’s midterms by 11 points.

“My, how things have changed in two years,” he said Thursday on “Morning Joe.”

According to the poll, released Wednesday, likely voters preferred a Democrat to represent their congressional district over a Republican, 52% to 41%. Democrats also led Republicans on major issues, including immigration and corruption.

Scarborough ticked through the results and explained why he believes Democrats are pulling ahead. On healthcare, 57% of likely voters said they trusted Democrats to do a better job, compared with 37% who preferred Republicans.

“Republicans gave tax cuts to billionaires so they could cut healthcare in rural America,” he said, referring to President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

On cost of living, something Scarborough said Trump “will not talk about,” voters backed Democrats 55% to 40%. The “Morning Joe” co-host said Trump was also dragging down his party on international issues. Republicans trailed Democrats by 10 points on their handling of foreign wars.

Trump “can’t get out of the war he started in Iran, even though he was warned by everybody not to go into Iran,” Scarborough said.

The poll found that voters preferred Democrats to address potential threats from artificial intelligence, 48% to 37%. Scarborough blamed the gap on Trump’s refusal to take action, even as industry researchers warn of the dangers of leaving the technology unregulated.

“He just says he’s not going to do anything about the most challenging, most hopeful, but also the most dangerous technology of our lifetime,” he said.

The results mark a sharp shift from 2024, when Trump drew a broad coalition of voters who viewed him as the change candidate to deliver on the issues they cared about. Scarborough recalled that “bro culture was ushered in” and “we were told that we were in the dawning of sort of the age of Joe Rogan.”

“So you look at all of those numbers … my, how things have changed in two years,” he said.

The poll was conducted Oct. 12-19 among 3,494 voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.