Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked point-blank if the White House is in “full-blown freakout mode” over President Joe Biden’s dire polling numbers ahead of the November election.
Doocy cited a Politico report titled, “Dems in full-blown ‘freakout’ over Biden,” detailing Democrats’ “pensive sense of fear” of the potential outcomes of the 2024 election due to the president’s low polling numbers.
“Are you guys here at the White House in full-blown freakout mode?” Doocy asked during Tuesday’s press briefing.
“What are you talking about?” the press secretary asked. “What are you talking about, Peter?”
“There’s a Politico story, it sounds like Democrats outside, the quote is ‘Biden’s stubbornly poor polling and the stakes of the election are creating the freakout,'” Doocy continued.
The press secretary refrained from commenting on the election itself and instead touted the president’s economic legislative actions which she said are helping families with “kitchen table” issues. (RELATED: Top Democrats Panic Over Possible Biden Loss: REPORT)
“So, again, I’m being mindful. I’m not gonna comment on the 2024 election, but I will say this. The president has never forgotten where he came from, who he is, he understands what the American people are going through at the kitchen table. You hear the president talk about his time growing up where he watched his family at the kitchen table have to make incredibly difficult decisions, and the president has always said he’s going to fight for communities that have been forgotten and you see that in the economic policies that he’s put forward,” she said.
Anxiety is soaring among Democrats and staffers with the Biden campaign as former President Donald Trump’s lead among battleground states is growing more prominent as the election draws closer. A series of polls have found Trump garnering a significant lead in Nevada and Arizona, while further leading in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
A New York Times/Sienna College poll showed Biden’s lead among black and Hispanic voters — a Democratic-leaning demographic — has narrowed between the two candidates by record numbers. Across the six swing states, Biden is leading Trump 70% to 18% among black voters, as well as by 47% to 42% among Hispanic voters. The president won the black and Hispanic vote by 75 and 33 points in 2020, according to Edison Research.
Trump has also outpaced Biden in fundraising by $25 million in April, including raising a record $50.5 million at an event in Palm Beach, Florida, according to Politico.
“You don’t want to be that guy who is on the record saying we’re doomed, or the campaign’s bad or Biden’s making mistakes. Nobody wants to be that guy,” an anonymous Democratic operative told Politico, adding the low polling numbers are causing “the freakout.”
Trump is narrowly ahead of the national polls 41.3% to 39.9% as of Tuesday, according to FiveThirtyEight.
