Pollster Cornell Belcher told NBC host Danielle Pletka that former President Donald Trump could foreseeably win the presidency in a runoff against President Joe Biden. The comment brought shocked silence to the set as Platka was dumbfounded by the honest assessment.
“Did I just hear you say that?,” uttered Platka.
Belcher responded that the current political climate is aligning for a repeat of 2016, in which Trump captured conservative voters ranging from high-dollar executives to low-income residents, while the liberal base patronized by Hillary Clinton failed to generate enough support to prevent the braggadocious non-politician from taking the worlds most important elected office.
Full Panel: Trump could win 2024 election ‘by subtraction’ https://t.co/ThLYwgNBao
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 10, 2023
Biden is viewed as “too old” by a large swath of the voting public. A recent poll found that even the most die-hard Democrats are concerned with his age and apparent mental capacity of the current president. Biden has repeatedly misspoken while president, committing fouls including calling Vice President Kamala Harris “president,” and referring to himself as “your next senator.”
Belcher said that the rational voter might look at Trump as the lesser of two evils after the House has introduced charges that should lead to an impeachment inquiry. Biden is believed by Republicans to have participated in “Pay to Play” schemes during his time as Vice President to then-President Barack Obama. Biden has hurt himself after bragging openly about using his position to influence foreign decisions including the firing of a prosecutor who was investigating a Ukrainian company that was paying Biden’s son thousands of dollars a month for an apparently honorary position.
Despite efforts by dozens of blue states to utilize existing laws to prevent Trump from being on the ballot, the former president remains immensely popular with conservatives. He is pooling far higher than any Democrat or Republican ahead of the 2024 election. With the news that California Governor Gavin Newsom will not seek the Democratic nomination in 2024, the field of challengers to Trump continues to sink. The chance that a run-off between Trump and Biden will repeat for 2024 is increasingly likely.
Belcher believes that center- or center-left voters who are aware of the policy failures and apparent corruption by Biden and his family will likely vote for third-party candidates in 2024. Many Democrats unable to cope with the outcome of the 2016 election continue to believe that third-party candidates were the real reason Trump was elected.
Left-leaning CNN recently conducted a poll that showed Americans favored Trump over Biden by 47% to 46%. GOP candidates have yet to get higher than 20% approval in polling while Trump continues to maintain about 50% support despite the spate of lawsuits and federal charges against him.
