Politico’s Heidi Przybyla on Tuesday laid out the “devastating” difference between President Joe Biden’s poll numbers and former President Barack Obama’s following a new poll showing Biden sinking in key states.
A New York Times/Siena College poll published Sunday found former President Donald Trump leading Biden in five out of six crucial swing states by substantial margins. Trump polls ahead of Biden in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan by a margin of three to 10 points. Biden is leading by a slight margin in Wisconsin, though it falls within the margin of victory.
CNN’s David Axelrod said Biden should decide whether it’s “in HIS best interest or the country’s” to continue to run for president. Director of Defending Democracy Together Bill Kristol said Biden needs to make a “personal sacrifice” and “pass the torch to the next generation,” while CNN’s Van Jones said Biden should consider dropping out.
Axios senior contributor Margaret Talev argued Biden is still working to “define the economy positively,” even attaching his own name to it through “Bidenomics,” but that it has “not been working.” Talev argued the White House is also trying to avoid elevating Trump, who is not the official Republican nominee and that Democrats are mindful of Hillary Clinton’s failed ability to “define a positive message for herself and to focus more on the negative of Trump.”
Przybyla said the polling shows a general “disconnect” between Biden’s policies and how the public feels.
“They don’t need to define Trump, as well. And it’s no secret that they feel that there’s a big disconnect right now between what’s happening in some of the economic data, for instance with GDP, and what people’s feelings are about the state of the economy, which was supposed to be, really, an amazing accomplishment here for the president to have taken us out of COVID and out of what could have been a really devastating recession. And yet, they feel not to have credit for that,” she said.
“That said, his poll numbers, this recent spate of polls is not good. Look, I’m hesitant to read too much into the polls after 2016 and … after 2022, to read too much into the polls. Furthermore, the administration is pointing out where Obama was at this point and that he came back, but … the one thing that did not exist back then that exists now that is so important are some of these voices, allies of the president coming out and saying, ‘Hey, I think maybe he should reconsider getting out of the race,’ which is kind of devastating,” Przybyla continued.
“That’s what former candidate for Senate, who did not win, Tim Ryan, said to our colleague Kasie Hunt yesterday. David Axelrod, our colleague here, didn’t say ‘get out of the race,’ but he is sounding the alarm very very loudly, which is not exactly a welcome sound at the White House,” host Dana Bash said.