Biden still backing himself despite Democrat worries

The last thing Joe Biden needs is ­another pratfall to add to the clips of stumbles and muddles eating away at his credibility with voters.

Joe Biden makes his point with car workers at Belvidere, Illinois. Picture: Getty Images

As Joe Biden addressed car workers in Illinois last week, he was startled by the sound of an audience member falling over.

“You OK?” the US President asked, adding, to laughter: “I want the press to know that wasn’t me.”

The last thing Biden needs is ­another pratfall to add to the clips of stumbles and muddles that are mercilessly replayed by his Republican opponents on social media and are eating away at his credibility with voters. Two recent opinion polls, for The New York Times and CNN, put him well behind ­Donald Trump, his likely ­opponent in next November’s election, prompting some big names to join calls for him to step aside.

Nevertheless Biden was in a jovial mood during a week when election results around the country showed his Democratic Party performing well, and he tried to make light of concerns about his age and ability to serve another four years, even as he approaches his 81st birthday next week.

“I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future than I am today. And I know I only look like I’m 30, but I’ve been around a long time,” he said.

This raised another laugh, but Biden’s “actuarial” problem – as former Obama senior aide David Axelrod put it – is no joke for many Americans nervous that the man who blocked Trump in 2020 might now be about to let him back in.

Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur-turned-politician who endorsed Biden after losing in the 2020 Democratic primary but has since left the party, summed up these feelings, saying: “If Joe Biden were to step aside, he would go down in history as an accomplished statesman who beat Trump and achieved a great deal. If he decides to run again it may go down as one of the great overreaches of all time that delivers us to a disastrous Trump second term.”

Joe and Jill Biden leave the White House South Lawn on Saturday to spend the weekend at their home in Wilmington, Delaware. Picture: AFP

The pressure on Biden would have been intense had the party not performed well in last week’s state elections. Abortion rights were backed in Republican-controlled Ohio, in line with a pattern of votes across the country rejecting hard line restrictions imposed by red-state politicians.

But days earlier, The New York Times and Siena College poll put Trump ahead of Biden in five crucial swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. It found 71 per cent of voters thought Biden “too old” to be an effective president. Axelrod called it a cause for “legitimate concern” and urged Biden to think hard about whether it was “wise” to run, because “his biggest liability is the one thing he can’t change”.

Biden’s 2020 coalition appears to be crumbling, exacerbated by discontent over his support for ­Israel, with growing numbers of young, black and Hispanic voters drifting away from the Democrats. A CBS News poll asked last week whether the US should send weapons and supplies to Israel: 59 per cent of those under 30 said no, as did 64 per cent of those aged 30 to 44. A CNN poll put Trump on 48 per cent among 18 to 34-year-olds and Biden one point behind on 47 per cent. He won the youth vote by 24 points in 2020.

The window for changing course in the Democratic primary contest is rapidly closing. By the end of the year it will be impossible for a challenger to register in enough state primary elections to stand a chance of replacing Biden.

While social media echoes with calls for him to drop out, the President is serenely planning for a second term, according to those who know him. “He is going to stay on. He is going to run,” said Bob Shrum, a veteran Democratic consultant who has worked with Biden and has an inside track.

“Tuesday’s elections told us there are some issues that actually motivate people to vote for Democrats – abortion is one, threats to democracy is another. They showed that there was an issue base for Biden to campaign on.

“The age thing is obviously a real concern. But I’m in the camp that says Biden is going to run and Democrats ought to do their damnedest to make sure that we win the election.”

Biden argued on Thursday that the media was obsessing about unrepresentative polls, telling a journalist: “You don’t read the polls. Ten polls. Eight of them, I’m beating him in those places. Eight of them. You guys only do two. CNN and New York Times. Check it out.”

The RealClearPolitics average of all recent polls has Trump on 45.6 per cent and Biden on 44.5 per cent, so it was not clear which ­alternative polls he had in mind.

But the age problem is beginning to cut both ways ahead of an election likely to be between the two oldest candidates in history. Trump, 77, has started to back away from attacks on Biden’s age and infirmity after making a few bloopers of his own. At a rally in Iowa he again said, incorrectly, that Hungary has a border with Russia. Last week, in Florida, he mixed up the Chinese and North Korean leaders, saying: “Kim Jong-un leads 1.4 billion people and there’s no doubt about who the boss is.”

Only two fringe candidates have registered in the Democratic primary contest to take on the President. Unless a heavyweight emerges in the next few weeks, and barring a health crisis, Biden is almost certain to be the party’s nominee.

Biden loyalists have been out in force to try to quash party dissent.

Donna Brazile, a former chairwoman of the Democratic national committee, told America’s ABC News: “Since age is going to be a factor in this election, let me tell you my age – I’m old enough to ­remember when Reagan was trailing in 1984 for his election. I’m old enough to remember when Bill Clinton was trailing and Barack Obama was toast right before the 2012 re-election. Don’t count out Joe Biden.”

Meanwhile it is full steam ahead at Biden campaign HQ in Wilmington, Delaware, where they are preparing highly targeted ad campaigns to send messages to the particular groups of voters the party is trying to keep on board, such as ethnic minorities and the young. Biden continues to out-fundraise Trump and other ­Republicans, recording $US71m in the third quarter.

Quentin Fulks, the principal deputy campaign manager, dismissed concerns about Biden’s age as “Beltway chatter”.

The campaign instead has faith voters will reward Biden’s economic record. He is spending billions on infrastructure and is completing the job of recovering from the pandemic and war in Ukraine – growth hit 4.9 per cent in the third quarter and unemployment has been below 4 per cent for almost two years.

“People don’t care when you’re lowering their healthcare costs or making their lives more affordable if that’s being given to them by someone that’s 80 or by somebody that’s 25,” Fulks told The Run-Up podcast. “At the end of the day people care about kitchen-table issues. The wisdom that comes with President Biden’s age is precisely what we need to get things done.”

The Sunday Times