Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin told Newsmax on Monday that the only reason President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race is because he was losing.
The problem for Democrats, however, is that they picked the "only person on the planet" more unpopular than Biden to replace him, McLaughlin said on "The Chris Salcedo Show."
McLaughlin, a pollster for Republican nominee Donald Trump's campaign, joined political analyst Mark Halperin to break down Biden's weekend exit from the race and the ensuing coronation of Kamala Harris to replace him.
"The truth of the matter is the reason why Joe Biden got out of this race was because he was losing. And it just goes to show you how ruthless the Democrats are. They're going to do, say anything to stay in power. And that's how they're looking at this," McLaughlin told Salcedo. "But the problem they have in Kamala Harris is, the Democrats found the only person on the planet who's actually probably more unpopular than Joe Biden is.
"And most of the credible polling before this actually happened, she was actually running weaker than Joe Biden was," he added. "And she's got bigger negatives. And I think it's a real problem because she's got all of Joe Biden's negatives and she has none of his positives."
Halperin said his reporting suggests that a percentage of Democrats are "skeptical" of replacing one weak link with another.
"You do hear a lot of Democrats today, not a lot, but not a small number saying, 'Let me get this straight; we fought for three weeks, publicly and privately, to remove a guy who we didn't think could win the election, to replace him with a woman we don't think can win the election,'" Halperin said. "There are some Democrats who are very skeptical of this. I think [Harris] can win. I'm probably more bullish on her chances than most people I know, including Mr. McLaughlin.
"But she doesn't start on paper — if you were starting from scratch — as the person who would be the first choice to try to beat Donald Trump."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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