A White House reporter pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday about a new poll that found most Democrats want President Joe Biden to retire after one term.
The reporter referenced an NBC poll, which revealed that a majority of Americans, 54 percent, do not believe Biden is physically or mentally suited to be in office and 48 percent do not find him to be honest or trustworthy. Forty-nine percent also doubted that he could handle a crisis.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted on Feb. 3 found that 62 percent of Democrats would be dissatisfied if Biden were reelected and 56 percent of Republicans would feel similarly if former President Donald Trump won a second term.
“Given that poll — which, you know, is not just a single poll, versions of that have been repeated in poll after poll, survey after survey, since the midterm elections and before,” the reporter said. “And I think one of my colleagues referenced a recent poll that said more Democrats don’t want President Biden to be their nominee than Republicans don’t want President Trump to be their nominee. So, given all of that, why are you so convinced that it was President Biden that caused the Democratic success in the midterms and not that the Democrats had success in spite of the president?”
“Because if you look at what candidates, senators and congressional members ran on, it was the successes that the president had,” Jean-Pierre said. “It was on the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, it was on the CHIPS and Science Act, which was bipartisan because the president was able to make that happen. It was because of the Inflation Reduction Act, if you hear the message that was coming out of Democrats during the midterms, it was what we were able to deliver. So, yes, that’s what they used.”
A poll from AP-NORC found that 37 percent of Democrats want Biden to run for reelection and 52 percent prefer a different candidate. Another survey conducted by ABC News/Washington Post shows that only 37 percent want the president to serve in a second term and 58 percent want someone else. (RELATED: Jean-Pierre Responds To Poll Finding Majority Of Democrats Prefer Different Presidential Candidate In 2024)
The reporter then asked if Democrats have been more successful in touting the president’s successes than the president has, and said Biden’s message is “not translating” with the public based on the polls’ results.
In response, the press secretary cited the alleged strengthening of the economy, including 12 million additional jobs. The economy and deficit have improved since the economy reopened after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and after the government stopped sending stimulus checks.
“We understand, and it is true that the American people are feeling inflation, they’re feeling what the pandemic and COVID has done the last two, three years,” she said. “And so we understand that they’re going to have some feelings about the economy right now, and so that is something that the president has always acknowledged and has said there’s always more work to do. But also, the reality is if you look at the data, if you look at how the economy has bounced back because of this work that the president has done … those are real data points.”
A New York Times/Siena survey conducted in July 2022 found that 64 percent of likely Democratic primary voters believe a different candidate should be nominated in the 2024 presidential election. This largely outweighed the 26 percent that wanted Biden to run for a second term.