The stalemate in the Democratic Party is likely to continue for some time, as Joe Biden awkwardly made it through his “big boy” press conference. Biden may have done enough to survive for the time being—albeit barely—but at what cost? Democrats are still worried he’s going to lose big, and Joe Biden still believes that he is the Democrat best positioned to defeat Donald Trump.
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“The consideration is that I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I’ve beat him once and I will beat him again. Secondly, the idea I served in the Senate for a long time, the idea that senators and congressmen running for office worry about the ticket is not unusual,” Biden said during the press conference Thursday night. “And I might add — there are at least five presidents running or incumbent presidents who had lower numbers than I have now, later in that campaign.”
He added, “So there’s a long way to go in this campaign. And so I, I’m just going to keep moving, keep moving. And because look, I’ve got more work to do. We’ve got more work to finish, there’s so much — we made so much progress.”
This comment had MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, and Chris Hayes scratching their heads.
“There is no incumbent president with lower approval ratings that won,” Wallace pointed out. “Only three with lower ratings than he has right now and they all lost. Donald Trump, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter. So some of the political information is what worries some folks in his inner circle. And there is right now no poll showing him winning.”
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Chris Hayes then highlighted that the uncertainty about the future is what makes the situation difficult and anguishing for many people. He emphasized that no single poll can definitively predict the outcome, and no one can guarantee that specific actions will lead to certain results.
Rachel Maddow appeared to agree.
“You make an important point that I think we cannot say frequently enough, as Democrats and people who want to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House, anguish over this decision,” she said. “That is that there is no perfect information about the future. And the argument that President Biden is best positioned to beat Donald Trump is an argument. There are other arguments that are also data-based that other people might have a better shot at it.”
However, Maddow then acknowledged that things are much worse for Biden than he’s suggesting they are.
“I think that the, what Nicolle points out about the reality about polling numbers for incumbent presidents, and the real history of that versus what President Biden said — which was not actually factual accurate, as far as I can tell. That’s worrying. It makes me worry that the president is being given information about his political standing that may not be based in reality and maybe sunnier than it is real.”
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Rachel Maddow is worried Biden “is being given information about his political standing that may not based in reality” 😂 pic.twitter.com/JC4kxYD2EP
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 12, 2024
You can hear the panic in her voice. And she has every reason to be. Biden’s poll numbers are terrible, and his approval ratings are well below reelection territory.
Whatever information Biden is being told, based on his public statements, he’s not getting the full picture.
