Democratic Fox News panelist Jessica Tarlov called out the contrast Tuesday between President Joe Biden’s strong primary election numbers and his consistently low survey results.
Tarlov appeared on Fox’s panel for the outlet’s 2024 Super Tuesday coverage to discuss the state’s final results as they came in. During the discussion, Fox host Bret Baier questioned Tarlov about Biden’s upcoming State of the Union address, asking if the president could bridge the gap between public sentiment and his presumed accomplishments.
Tarlov pointed out that while Biden’s message needs to be better tailored, she highlighted the president’s high primary results, with most exceeding 90%, across the Super Tuesday states. Tarlov questioned the results compared to a recent New York Times/Siena poll, which showed voters strong disapproval of Biden’s term, stating she believes the voters are still in support of Biden. (RELATED: Biden Reportedly Pushing His Aides To Let Him Be Himself Ahead Of Election)
“It’s not a sexy slogan to say, ‘We have the best recovery of the G7.’ That doesn’t mean a lot to people except for us who can break it down and talk about the jobs numbers, the unemployment, the record oil production, and those things, but that won’t resonate in the same way. I’m part of the elder Millennial sect of America that couldn’t buy an apartment when we were ready to, or we thought that we were. We were really proud of what was in our savings account and then with the interest rates and the mortgage rates, it became unaffordable for us to do it this year,” Tarlov stated.
“This is real life to people who support Republicans and who support Democrats and who are independents. But it definitely has to be messaged better and that’s something that I’ve been really concerned with because I feel like the messaging has only been tailored to a certain group of people who agree with you on everything…But Joe Biden is cruising through this thing tonight.”
“I mean we’re seeing numbers, 90%, 91%, 92%, 93% – I’m old enough to remember when we thought Dean Phillips was a thing or we were tracking how many uncommitted voters he had. The Democratic Party is showing up and saying Joe Biden is our guy and we are good with it and that does not square with the numbers we saw in The New York Times/Siena poll for instance. I’m not someone who is going to sit here and question the methodology of it but it does make you think if it’s November 5th, all those people that are showing up in Arkansas and across the country for Biden in those numbers [are] sending a clear message, ‘We’re with Biden on this and that isn’t going to change,'” Tarlov stated.
Biden achieved a sweeping victory Tuesday night, winning the Democratic primaries in states such as Texas, Alabama, Maine, Oklahoma, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Colorado, Vermont, and Iowa, according to AP results. In many of his victory states, the president garnered high percentages from voters, winning Alabama with 90%, Texas with 86.7%, Colorado with 84.9%, and Maine with 93%, AP results showed at the time of publication.
However, surveys questioning voters nationwide have consistently shown disapproval of Biden’s term and the direction of the country. The New York Times/Siena poll found that out of 980 registered voters surveyed, only one in four believe the country is headed in the right direction. The poll additionally revealed that nearly 47% of Americans “strongly disapprove” of Biden’s job performance.