George Stephanopoulos Can't Sugarcoat It: New Poll Numbers 'Brutal for President Biden'
Former Clinton White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos, now host of “This Week” on ABC, commented on the results of a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll Sunday.
The short version: “This poll is just brutal for President Biden.”
Stephanopoulos was introducing ABC News Political Director Rick Klein, who went into the specifics.
“The skepticism over his leadership extends deep inside his own party,” Klein said of President Joe Biden.
As evidence, Klein said that only 36 percent of the Democrats surveyed by the poll said that the incumbent should run for a second term. More than half preferred “someone else,” and only 6 percent expressed no opinion.
“That’s despite the fact that the entire [Democratic National Committee], most of the Democratic establishment, has rallied behind President Biden,” Klein said.
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Klein said that Biden now trailed former President Donald Trump by 9 points among independents in a hypothetical matchup between the two in 2024.
And while Biden led Trump by 35 points among black Americans, that was less than half of the 75 percent lead Biden enjoyed in the 2020 election.
“The fact of the matter is, in modern politics, that is not the kind of number that a Democrat needs to be victorious,” Klein said.
In the overall poll of 1,006 adults, Trump showed a 7-point edge over Biden, 49 percent to 42 percent. That was just barely within the most extreme limit of the poll’s 3.5-point margin of error.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not announced his 2024 candidacy, also led Biden by 7 points, 48-to-41.
According to Klein, the similarity in those results no matter who the hypothetical Republican nominee was indicated that the race was more about Biden’s weaknesses, perhaps especially his age, rather than about the strengths of his potential opponents.
Kelin also remarked on the fact that, despite the fact that more than half of the adults surveyed — 56 percent — thought that Trump should face criminal charges related to the Jan. 6 incursion at the Capitol, he led all Republican primary challengers, including the still-hypothetical DeSantis, by double digits.
In fact, 18 percent of those surveyed believed both that Trump should face criminal charges and that they would vote for him in 2024.
“That tells you a lot about Trump’s potential strengths, but maybe more than that, some of Biden’s weaknesses,” Klein said.
Some of the poll results suggest that the age of the candidates will play a decisive roll in the 2024 election.
“Donald Trump is less than four years younger than Joe Biden, but the concerns over Biden’s age are much more significant,” Klein said. “Sixty-eight percent of voters think that Joe Biden is too old for an additional term.”
“Only 44 percent say the same about Donald Trump,” he added.
The poll does not appear to have asked the same question regarding the 44-year-old DeSantis.
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