ABC’s Jon Karl said former President Donald Trump is currently leading President Joe Biden in several key swing states because voters have “not been paying attention” to what the Republican frontrunner “has become.”
A new poll by The New York Times and Siena College found Trump leading Biden in five out of six key battleground states in a hypothetical 2024 general election. The Republican frontrunner is leading in Nevada, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, while Biden leads by two points in Wisconsin.
The poll surveyed 3,662 registered voters between Oct. 22 and Nov. 3 with a 4.8 plus or minus margin of error.
“One thing to consider here is, you know, Trump has been in the news in the last year or so based on these criminal cases, the civil case in New York, but people have not been paying attention to what Trump has become. Trump, since he left the White House, and this is really the theme of my book, has become more detached from reality than he ever was even in the White House.”
He accused the media and the American people of paying more attention to Biden’s age and confused state while ignoring Trump’s mental capacity as he allegedly becomes increasingly “confused.” (RELATED: Trump Jokes He Needs ‘One More Indictment’ To Win Election)
“If you think of where we were in January of 2021, that’s the starting point for where a Trump presidency would be next time around, so I think he’s had largely, believe it or not, a free ride, again the criminal cases we know about, but what he’s thinking, what he’s doing, he had a speech just the other day in Texas where he referred to the people that are in prison because they attacked the U.S. Capitol and beat up police officers, he called them not prisoners, but hostages.”
“We talk about Biden’s age a lot, Biden’s negatives are on television everyday. You see them. Trump has become also increasingly confused about things. Sometimes he thinks that he lost to Obama in the last election, he confuses basic facts, says some rather strange things. But there isn’t much attention paid. As we get closer to these primaries, we’ll see where not just Trump is based on these criminal cases, but where he is now as a human being.”
Karl referenced a speech from mid-September where Trump appeared to confuse Biden for his predecessor, former President Barack Obama and warned that Biden may cause World War III. Trump, along with many others in the U.S., have expressed concern about Biden’s gaffes and age, as his 81st birthday is coming up on Nov. 20.
A majority of Democratic voters continue to prefer a different nominee in 2024 due to his age and job performance. The president has had several alarming moments that have been called into question, including when he searched the room for a deceased congresswoman during a September 2022 event and shook hands with the air in April 2022.
The president has defended his age by saying it comes with “a little bit of wisdom” and has touted his job performance to justify running for a second term.
Along with denying the 2020 election results, Trump is facing four criminal indictments in Washington D.C., New York, Florida and Georgia for allegedly falsifying business records to pay hush money to a former porn star in 2016, storing classified documents in Mar-a-Lago and for allegedly attempting to overthrow the election in Washington D.C. and Georgia.