Scarborough participated in a Bush election rally in Pensacola on August 10, 2004, while he was employed by MSNBC as host of the nightly news show "Scarborough Country".
Scarborough didn't cover the rally for MSNBC, but attended as a former Republican Congressman who represented Pensacola.
He sat immediately behind Bush, and Bush thanked him for his attendance during his speech.
Joe Scarborough, host of the nightly ''Scarborough Country'' program, could be seen on news reports on Tuesday standing and applauding numerous times during the president's speech. Mr. Bush even cited him in his speech, saying he appreciated Mr. Scarborough's presence in the district he once served as a Republican congressman. ''I'm glad he did it,'' said Rick Kaplan, the president of MSNBC, said of Mr. Scarborough's appearance. ''It was good for the profile of the show to remind people he has an inside view of politics.''
New York Times - Aug 11, 2004
MSNBC went on to say ItsOKtoCheerleadBush because Scarborugh's show was an opinion show, unlike Hardball. Yet anyone familiar with Scarborough's show knows it was structurally no different than Hardball. In fact, they would run in the same evening time block, complementing each other.