Nearly 60% of Democrats and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be their party’s presidential nominee in 2024, a new poll showed on Sunday.
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However, a key member of Biden’s cabinet insisted that Biden’s track record was more important than any “generational argument” for change.
Among Americans in general, the Washington Post and ABC News poll, released two days before Biden’s State of the Union address, found that 62% would be “dissatisfied” or “angry” if Biden were to be killed in two years’ time. re-elected. while 56% said the same about Trump returning to the role he lost in 2020.
Just over a third of all respondents (36%) said they would be “excited” or “satisfied but not thrilled” if Biden were reelected. For Trump, that total was 43%.
Biden’s secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union.
Asked if he thought generational arguments like the ones he advanced two years ago during his own presidential run could gain traction, the 41-year-old said: “Generational arguments can be powerful [but] the most powerful argument of all is result.
“I would say you can’t say with an honest face that it’s not a good thing that we created 12 million jobs under this president. And by the way, a lot of the jobs are in manufacturing.
“As someone who grew up in the industrial Midwest, it was so moving to see hundreds of thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs being created, including in rural areas, in small towns in places like Tennessee and Louisiana, and Georgia and Indiana, the kind of of growth that benefits the entire American people.”
In 2020, a presidential election between Biden and Trump was fought in the shadow of Covid-19, but produced a huge turnout, with Biden garnering more than 81 million votes to more than 74 million for Trump.
By continuing his lie about voter fraud, Trump sought to undo his defeat, leading to the deadly riot in the Capitol and a second impeachment for inciting that rebellion.
Acquitted after enough Republicans remained loyal, Trump will still be the only declared candidate for the GOP nomination two years from now. Biden has said he intends to run, but has not officially announced his candidacy.
Biden, already the oldest president to be first inaugurated, would be 82 when he is inaugurated for a second term and 86 by the end of his term. Trump would be 77 when he returns to the White House.
Upon leaving the White House this week, Biden’s first chief of staff gave a heavy hint that Biden will run.
“Like I did in 1988, 2008 and 2020, I look forward to standing by your side as you run for president in 2024,” said Ron Klain, drawing applause from staff and smiles from Biden.
Buttigieg said, “I think when you look at what America faced when President Biden took office, and what has been achieved in these first two years of this administration… I think those results will continue to pile up.
“People will throw whatever argument they can into the mix that they think will benefit them the most. But at the end of the day, you can’t argue with the extraordinary achievements, more than almost any other modern president, that President Biden has accomplished under the toughest of circumstances.”
According to the Post-ABC poll, a matchup between Biden and Trump in 2024 would yield 48%-45% in Biden’s favor: “A gap within the poll’s margin of error”.