Happy birthday, Mr. Speaker.
Dirt-prone President Biden turned 81 on Monday — and finds himself with almost nothing to celebrate as mainstream Democrats continue to fret over his advanced age and new polls show him losing support with younger voters.
Some of his top allies have tried to convince major donors and other Democrats that like it or not, Biden is the party’s best bet to take on a GOP rival next year, according to an outrage-fueled Washington Post exposé published Sunday.
But a new NBC News poll suggests that even if Biden remains atop the Dem ticket, Republican nominee Donald Trump is likely to beat him — the first time the 77-year-old former president has topped his successor in a national general election poll from the network.
“The bad news is that everyone is wetting the bed in Biden’s world,” one fundraiser told The Washington Post.
“It’s really an unhappy meeting of Biden’s world-donor cocktail party friends saying ‘Can’t you get him not to run,’ which is stupid and ridiculous if you know Joe Biden.”
Already the oldest president in United States history, Biden will be 86 years old by the end of his hypothetical second term.
At a private power conference in late September hosted by Ari Emanuel, the brother of Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, the Democrats’ angst was on full display — with one attendee loudly worrying about Biden being in serious danger of losing the election and asking about Democrats. backup plan, the newspaper said.
Ron Klain has been one of President Biden’s most vocal defenders in the public domain.AFP via Getty Images
Former Biden chief of staff and staunch ally Ron Klain quickly responded, underscoring that there is no Plan B and that the incumbent is a great nominee, according to the report.
Attendees were reportedly divided over Klain’s remarks, with some disappointed by the lack of a backup plan and others grateful for his defense of Biden.
Nearly six weeks later, Biden campaign officials traveled to Chicago for a private event where some attendees expressed disappointment that former President Barack Obama had not done more to lift his ex’s spirits.
“The take on the weekend wasn’t, ‘Hey team, we’ve got to get the gang back together to help Biden out,'” one attendee told WaPo.
Donald Trump has beaten Joe Biden in recent polls.Getty Images
“If this is a threat that supposedly exists and democracy is so challenged, then why aren’t you being more open about it?”
Not all of the Democrats’ nervousness about Biden has been relegated to backstage grumbling.
Democratic figure David Axelrod, who helped spearhead Obama’s 2008 presidential run, had put the world to Biden with his public skepticism, though he later clarified that he had not asked Biden to drop out of the race.
“I think he has a 50-50 shot here, but no better than that, maybe a little worse,” Axelrod told the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd in a Saturday column.
Dean Phillips challenges President Biden for party approval.REUTERS
“He thinks he can cheat nature here and it’s really risky. They have a real problem if they expect Trump to win it for them. I remember Hillary doing that too.”
Axelrod’s remarks came against the backdrop of polling networks showing Trump ahead of Biden in five of six battleground states.
The NBC poll, also out on Sunday, had Trump ahead of Biden – 46% to 44% – and significantly outperforming him among young voters.
The @POTUS proud of his achievements. Trump is a dangerous and unhinged demagogue whose brazen contempt for rules, norms, laws and institutions or democracy should be disqualified. But the stakes of the miscalculation here are too dramatic to ignore.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) November 5, 2023
Among young voters aged 18 to 34, Trump emerged 46% to 42% ahead of Biden — a group the president won by about 26 points in the 2020 election.
NBC is not alone in pegging Biden against Trump in the 2024 matchup, and the former president is up 1.6 percentage points over the incumbent in the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.
Biden’s team has downplayed the polls, arguing they don’t capture the true picture because it’s still a long way before next November’s election.
Trump has 91 criminal charges pending against him and will go on trial in March in a federal case in Washington DC that accuses him of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Earlier this month, Biden’s allies took a big victory lap following Democratic victories in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and elsewhere in the 2023 at-large elections.
They argue that the election proves critics in the party have been unnecessarily hyperventilating and are too caught up in the current outlook for the election to be just a year away.
“Time and time again, Biden has exceeded expectations. Happening in 2020, happening in 2022, happening on Tuesday night,” communications director Michael Tyler told reporters after that year’s outdoor victory.
Joe Biden is expected to turn 81 on Monday.AP
“You see days, weeks, months of uncertain predictions about how bad things are going to be for Joe Biden followed by election day with a historic victory,” he said.
Still, victories in 2022 and 2023 have failed to fully assuage Democratic concerns about Biden’s chances in the general election.
The Post contacted the Biden campaign for comment.
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) launched a primary challenge against Biden last month, making stories about the incumbent’s viability.
But Biden has a strong advantage over him and his other primary opponent, author Marianne Williamson.
While none of the heavyweight Democrats have challenged Biden for support, some have fueled presidential buzz — including California’s Gavin Newsom, who has embarked on a tour of red states and flash ads to champion progressive causes in conservative strongholds.
He’s set to take on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a debate later this month, with his team recently cutting an ad knocking the 2024 Republican presidential candidate for abortion.
Newsom has endorsed Biden and insisted he will not run for president in 2024.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
