CNN’s Poppy Harlow confronted CNN analyst and former Biden Communications Director Kate Bedingfield on Thursday over President Joe Biden’s “bad” poll numbers.
A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that Biden faces a tough re-election campaign, with 46 percent of voters saying that any Republican presidential nominee would be preferred over Biden. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley performed better against Biden than her fellow GOP primary candidates, defeating the incumbent 49-43 in a hypothetical matchup.
Among those polled, 58 percent say Biden’s policies have worsened economic conditions and 70 percent say things in the nation are going badly. Just 33 percent of those polled described the president as someone they’re proud to have in office. The poll also found that 49 percent of Democrats are concerned about Biden’s age.
“You look at these numbers and they’re not just not good — They’re bad,” Harlow said.
“These numbers are not good, but and they’re consistent with most of the other polling that we’ve seen,” CNN Senior Political Commentator David Axelrod added. “The country is in a sour mood. He’s not getting credit for what I think is a fairly substantial list of achievements. And there is real concern about his age. And that has been true for some time. It continues to be true. And the reality is if this were a referendum, he would be he would be in deep, deep trouble.”
“What are people missing here that the White House, that the political team for the reelection campaign knows that they’re not seeing?” host Phil Mattingly asked Bedingfrield
“Well, remember … polls don’t get asked in a vacuum,” Bedingfield responded. “And there’s a lot of information that doesn’t get folded into a question the way it’s posed to somebody who’s responding to a poll.” (RELATED: CNN Political Director Warns Of ‘Troublingly Low’ Approval Ratings, Dangerous Trend For Biden)
“It’s sort of easy to look at a poll and get really sucked into the numbers, although I’ll tell you, you know, the Biden White House is not going to is not going to be rattled by this, because their view is there are going to be 500 polls between now and Election Day,” she continued. “But there’s a lot of information that that isn’t here that’s a reminder that campaigns don’t happen in a vacuum. And it’s on the Biden campaign to make this election a choice and to make it about the contrast between what Republicans are offering and what Biden is offering.”
A new Wall Street Journal poll found Trump leading Biden by 11 points on the question of who had a better record and by 10 points in perceived mental fitness to hold office. Fifty-eight percent of those polled said the economy has gotten worse over the past two years, with a majority of those polled disapproving of Biden’s handling of the economy.
An earlier CNN poll from August showed 51 percent of Americans saying the economy was getting worse and gave Biden a 41 percent approval rating. Biden’s handling of the economy received a 37 percent approval rating, while his handling of inflation got just 30 percent approval. The poll surveyed 1,279 random adults between July 1 and 31.
This story has been updated to correct an error related to a matchup between Biden and Haley.