CNN
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President Joe Biden is seeking to call the 2024 election as part of a referendum against Donald Trump, but his inauguration has left some voters with warm feelings toward the former president’s tumultuous term. It’s more difficult to cut this card now that I have the memory.
The presumptive Republican nominee has made progress in rallying Republicans as his ongoing criminal trial in New York strengthens his claim that he is the victim of political persecution. Even former Attorney General William Barr, who once said Trump should stay out of the Oval Office, told CNN he supports Trump. And the former president spoke for several hours Sunday with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, once his primary Republican rival. At the same time, Biden continues to have problems with key sectors of his own coalition, including young voters, a new CNN poll found.
With the election just over six months away, the volatile political climate poses multiple challenges for two flawed candidates, and it remains to be seen exactly which issues will be decisive in November. It is difficult to specify. They reflect voter disillusionment with the economy and abortion rights, as well as persistently high inflation and growing protests on college campuses over Israel’s war in Gaza, as well as Biden’s leadership on key issues at home and abroad. has been criticized.
A jury verdict in the Manhattan hush money case is also expected in the coming weeks, as the next presidential candidate looks to make a historic comeback after his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and remain in power. There is also an unprecedented situation in which a person faces multiple criminal charges, including being arrested.
Additionally, although the impact of independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the race remains unclear, President Trump has shown signs of growing concern about his candidacy.
A CNN poll released Sunday suggests Biden will take further action to remind voters of the turmoil of President Trump’s first term, which ended amid shaky leadership during a once-in-a-century pandemic. This suggests that they face extreme pressure to do so. It was a time of generally economic stability.
More than half of all Americans (55%) think Trump’s presidency was a success, while 44% think it was a failure. This is in contrast to a poll conducted just before Trump left office and days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that found 55% of voters thought Trump’s presidency was a failure. be. As for Biden’s presidential inauguration thus far, 61% said they saw it as a failure, while 39% saw it as a success.
The findings highlight the inverted dynamics that presidents must contend with as they seek a second term. Four years ago, he was able to attack President Trump’s tenure from his position as a challenger. Biden vowed that the nation would “get through this dark season” and choose “hope over fear, fact over fiction, equity over privilege.” But now, despite his own culpability, Trump is trying to make his election a classic referendum on the incumbent, allowing him to take advantage of Biden’s woes in office. The former president paints a picture of a failed state adrift in a world spinning chaotically, almost every day during breaks in his Manhattan trial.
“The economy is collapsing right now. As we’re seeing now, there’s little growth and it’s only going to get worse. Oil prices are skyrocketing and college campuses are closing down everywhere. Our country is going to hell. “I guess so,” he said Friday.
Inflation is down from its peak, but still higher than it was under President Trump. And with voters fed up with high prices, it has become one of the former president’s most effective tools of attack. A CNN poll shows Biden’s approval rating on the economy is 34%, but he’s even worse on inflation at 29%. And voters say economic concerns are more important to their choices this election than in the past two elections.
But the president also has other weaknesses. He has faced backlash over his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza, with 71% of respondents disapproving of his leadership on the issue. There are warning signs flashing among voters critical of the Democratic coalition, with his disapproval rating among those under 35 on the war at 81%.
Numbers like these explain why Republicans emphasize college campus protests. The Republican Party is largely unified in its strong support for Israel in its war against Hamas. But the issue has caused deep rifts in the Democratic coalition and could threaten enthusiasm for Biden among key voting blocs that could play a decisive role in battleground states. As Republicans seek to further exacerbate the president’s vulnerability on the issue, House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia University last week and called for the National Guard to be brought in to quell the protests. Some Jewish students said they were threatened and encountered anti-Semitic remarks by protesters at some campus rallies over the past week.
Mr. Biden, seeking to defuse the conflict between his own political interests (and what he perceives as U.S. national interests) and his support for Israel, spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and announced a planned He emphasized his opposition to Israel’s invasion of Israel. Rafah in Gaza. Critics fear that operations to clear out Hamas fighters could result in heavy civilian casualties. Such a scenario would only increase Biden’s political exposure domestically over the crisis.
Trump and DeSantis meet
Polls can only show a snapshot of opinion at a given time.
Trump’s (49%) and Biden’s (43%) approval ratings among registered voters in the head-to-head race are unchanged from their respective approval ratings in a January CNN poll. And most polling averages show this race to be a statistical tie. A CBS News poll released Sunday also shows Biden and Trump leading in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, some of the key battleground states that will decide the election. Biden won all three in 2020, after Trump defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 to win all three.
Even though Trump is locked up in a Manhattan courtroom four days a week while his hush money trial is ongoing, some Republicans now believe the tide of the election is in his favor. There is. “Your polls tell me everything I need to know about President Trump’s legal problems. People are focused on their own problems, not Mr. Trump’s legal problems.” South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the former president’s top allies, told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday’s “State of the Union.”
CNN poll shows most Republicans back Trump, even though thousands of Republican primary voters are still voting for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who resigned in March. It suggests that they are coming together. And the former president appears to have more control over the party than Biden. The poll found that 92% of Republicans believe Mr. Trump’s time in office was a success, while only 73% of Democrats say Mr. Biden’s time in office was a success. The poll also found that 85% of Democrats say they support Biden, while 91% of Republicans say they support Trump.
One of the hallmarks of Trump’s political success is his ability to crush Republican opposition and force Republicans who want a political future or simply a place in the party to bend to his will. In a new sign of this phenomenon, DeSantis, who slammed President Trump before ending his primary campaign, had breakfast with the former president on Sunday, CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Kit Maher reported.
Last week, in a rare interview with CNN’s Caitlan Collins, the former president’s former attorney general said he would vote for Trump. Barr denied Trump’s claims of election fraud in 2020, saying former President Trump tried to steal the election, but Biden and progressives represent a greater threat to democracy than Trump. He claimed that And what kind of cars should they drive? …Yes, they are a threat to democracy. ”
Haley supporter Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, who has previously described Trump as an extremist and a loser, said before the candidate withdrew that if he were the nominee, He said he would vote for Trump even if he had been convicted. A felon.
Biden has made the former president’s threat to democracy a mainstay of his campaign. However, it seems unlikely that President Trump will be held accountable for trying to overturn the 2020 election results before the 2024 election, with two federal and Georgia cases tied up in pretrial litigation. There is. The president is once again warning that the political freedoms Americans once took for granted are at risk. “Each of us has a role to play, a critical role to play, in ensuring the survival of our democracy. American democracy,” Biden said at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night. Stated.
Biden has been a successful president by many traditional metrics. He has maintained historically low unemployment rates for a long time after the pandemic-induced economic crisis. He united Western nations in support of a democratic Ukraine under ruthless and illegal attack from Russia. And earlier this month, he led a surprisingly successful U.S. operation to protect Israel from a salvo of Iranian drones and cruise and ballistic missiles. He has passed as important or more important legislation than his recent predecessors, including a bipartisan infrastructure bill that Trump was unable to enact. But whether it’s because of high inflation or the lingering economic uncertainty that still plagues Americans, he remains unpopular with voters.
Mr. Biden’s problem is that he is up against a former president who was the first to be indicted for inciting an insurrection that nearly destroyed American democracy and left office in disgrace after a checkered first term. more noticeable. “Saturday Night Live” comedian Colin Jost made this point in a slamming of Biden at Saturday’s correspondents dinner. “The Republican presidential candidate owes $500 million in fines for bank fraud and now spends his days in hush money court with a porn star, but is the race tied? Nothing matters anymore,” Jost said. said.
The joke was a hit in the Washington Hilton’s cavernous ballroom. But outside the cities of political elites and media, Mr. Trump enjoys deep support from tens of millions of Americans waiting for a chance to send him back to the White House.
