I don’t care what people say. The Democrats are worried, and they seem to be doing everything in their power to get Joe not to run in 2024.
Before we go any further, remember what Rush Limbaugh used to say about polls. The radio legend said that polls are not information. They are meant to be used as information but are used to drive an agenda or create news.
It doesn’t matter what Biden’s pundits say this poll purposely came out right before the State of the Union. The poll also came out days before Biden is expected to make an announcement that he’s going to run in 2024.
Below is a partial transcript (the video is below). It is a little long, but the complete line of questioning is brutal:
Reporter: So I wonder if I could follow up a little bit on Zeke’s third question. I think you made the assertion that the reason that there wasn’t a red wave or the reason that the elections and the midterms were more successful than many people thought they would be for Democrats was because of the President. Is that — that’s a fair —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah. And we’ve said that before. It’s noth- — it’s nothing new. We think —
Reporter: So, like —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: — we think the President played a very big role in laying out the message for Democrats.
Reporter: So I wonder how, in light of the following poll, you can make that assertion.
This is a recent NBC poll:
Is Biden honest and trustworthy? 34 percent, yes; 48 percent, no.
Ability to handle a crisis: 30 percent — 32 percent, yes; 49 percent, no.
Competent and effective: 31 percent, yes; 49 percent, no.
Has the necessary mental and physical health to be President: 28 percent, yes; 54 percent, no.
Uniting the country: 23 percent, yes; 50 percent, no.
I mean, given that poll, which, you know, is not just a single poll, it’s been — you know, versions of that had been repeated in poll after poll, survey after survey since the midterm elections and before. And I think one of my colleagues referenced a recent poll that said 60-something percent — more Democrats don’t want President Biden to be their nominee than Republicans don’t want President Trump to be their nominee.
So, given all of that, why are you so convinced that it was President Biden that caused the Democratic success in the midterms and not that the Democrats had success in spite of the President?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Well, I’ll say this: Because if you look at what candidates — senators and congressional members — ran on, it was the successes that the President had. It was on the bipartisan infrastructure legislation. It was on the CHIPS and Science — and Science Act, which was bipartisan because of — the President was able to make that happen. It was because of the Inflation Reduction Act. If you hear the message that was coming out of Democrats during the midterms, it was what we were able to deliver.
So, yes — so that’s what they used. Right? They used exactly what the President was able to do in order to get that success. And so —
Reporter: So that —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: It is — right? — if you think about all of the pieces of — of historic legislation that became law, clearly, that — that we did last year, again, the President led that. And the President went out there and spoke on these very important pieces of historical legislation.
When you think about what it’s done for the economy, what it’s done for the American people, how it’s provided some relief: Yeah, I think the President did play a big role.
Q So, then, just one quick follow-up. I mean — I mean, I guess does it suggest then that maybe the Democrats who were talking about the President’s agenda have been more successful at talking about the President’s agenda than the President —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Well —
Reporter: — himself has been? And does that make it all the more important tomorrow and — and whatever — whenever the President rolls out his election — re-election campaign, if he does — but does it make it that much more important for the President to somehow find a way to communicate as effectively as, I guess, some of these other Democrats were? Because, obviously, however — however he’s communicating now isn’t translating —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So I’ll say — I mean, look —
Reporter: — into his own successes.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I’ll say this, Michael — and Brian — and Brian spoke to this — right? — I think he got this question every which way from — from your colleagues, and a very important question to ask. But I’ll say this: We understand and it is true that the American people are feeling — are feeling inflation. They’re feeling what the pandemic and COVID has — has done — right? — the last two, three years.
And so we understand that they’re going to have some feelings about the economy right now. And so that is something that the President has always acknowledged and has said, “There’s always more work to do.”
But also, the reality is, if you look at the data, if you look at how the economy has bounced back because of this work that the President has done — and Brian spoke to this; I have spoken to this — when you think about record 12 million jobs, when you think about unemployment at the lowest that it’s been in 54 years, when you think about the 800,000 manufacturing jobs and how important the CHIPS and Science Act is going to continue to be as we see manufacturers coming back to the U.S — those are real data points, right? Those are real things that has occurred these past two years, and it’s because of the President.
Credit where credit is due — this is a brutal line of questioning to KJP from @ShearM of The New York Times pic.twitter.com/fXFOMea6PR
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 6, 2023
You can tell people at the White House haven’t had to buy eggs.
