President Joe Biden trailed former President Donald Trump by 48% to 44% in the most recent McLaughlin and Associates poll, with 8% undecided, but Biden's overall numbers point to an even more dismal outlook for his reelection chances, according to Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin.
"His disapproval rating has gone up to 54% and by the way, those that strongly disapproved are in the low 40s right now," McLaughlin, a pollster for Trump's 2020 campaign, said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" about the poll's results. "But you know, I'm going to throw out a word of caution here. Look we've got a long way to go from now to the 2024 elections."
But still, Biden, who has not formally announced his reelection campaign has a 54% disapproval rating overall, and on key issues with voters such as inflation, crime, or immigration, his "negatives and disapproval ratings go to over 60%," McLaughlin said on Newsmax, Wednesday.
"Voters are doing the comparison between Donald Trump's successes on those issues versus Joe Biden's failures," said McLaughlin. "It's very early. We should know at this time in 2015, everyone was saying Jeb Bush was going to be president. He was leading in most polls. We know how that turned out. But when it comes to Joe Biden, it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out."
Meanwhile, McLaughlin said he would not be surprised for Biden to turn over the choice for his running mate to delegates at the Democratic National Convention, like late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in the 1940s, but also, McLaughlin said he doesn't think Biden will be the party's eventual nominee.
"I know he's doing the dance and they're pretending he is because they don't want him to be a lame duck, and I think they want to try to do their best to choose who the next Democratic nominee is right now, but they have virtually no bench," said McLaughlin. "If he is the nominee, I wouldn't put that by them to do a stunt like that to try to help them electorally because with them everything is about politics. It hasn't happened in a long time."
Meanwhile, author Marianne Williams has entered the Democrat race, and even though she's an outsider, "don't be surprised if she's the only one out there as a protest candidate. People used to view Bernie Sanders as a fringe candidate."
McLaughlin further pointed out that overall, Republicans and many independents — even some Democrats — don't like the direction of the country under Biden.
"It's tough to beat an incumbent," said McLaughlin, but he also pointed at Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who on Tuesday lost her reelection bid and came in at a "bad third" place.
"The voters are clearly looking for change right now," he said. "Nothing surprises me with the voters."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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