Scarborough: ‘I Have no Plans to Run in 2016’

Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” offered a lukewarm denial Wednesday of a report that he may consider a bid for the White House in 2016.

"I have no plans to run in 2016," Scarborough, a former GOP congressman from Florida, told Politico. Of course that doesn’t mean he won’t have plans to do so tomorrow or any other time in the future.

The speculation percolated after Douglas Brinkley wrote in Vanity Fair that Scarborough is working on an autobiography that would "serve . . . as a vehicle to test the waters for a presidential run in 2016."

Scarborough said that while he never mentioned anything to Brinkley about 2016, it’s possible that, "six to nine months ago," MSNBC spokespeople may have said something about 2016 while discussing his forthcoming memoir. But MSNBC spokesperson Lauren Skowrosnki told Politico, "we don't even have a pub date on the book."

Nonetheless, Scarborough acknowledged that his plans may change before 2016. "I've got no plans to run in 2016, or in 2020. But you never know what's going to happen," he said.

"Every two years, there's someone suggesting that I run for Senate. Every two years, the national party comes to me. I've always been really flattered. But I look around, and I have the best job in the world. I have no desire to leave."

For his part, Brinkley told Politico that Scarborough "never told me he was running in 2016."