Philippe Reines, a former senior adviser and close associate of Hillary Clinton, expressed surprise on Monday upon learning the results of a recent poll indicating that Joe Biden is behind former President Donald Trump in several crucial swing states.
“I have to be honest with you, I don’t know what’s going on here,” Reines said on “The Story” when asked about the New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer poll showing Trump ahead in five of the six key battleground states where he was narrowly edged by President Biden four years ago.
Reines acknowledged that according to the poll’s findings, former President Trump would beat President Biden in the general election if it were held tomorrow. The results are no surprise for the Biden campaign, he said, adding that they are aware “they have problems.”
“I’m not going to pretend these numbers are good, but…I agree… if the election were tomorrow, Joe Biden would probably not win,” Reines said. “Thankfully though, there are 176 days between now and November 5th. Also, thankfully, the president and his team are not sitting there in a bubble thinking things are great. They know they have problems, and they know where they have problems. I think they know their best hope is to bring these folks home.”
The surveys, released Monday, suggest that discontent over the economy and the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, and a deterioration in support for Biden by younger, Black and Hispanic voters, “threaten to unravel the president’s Democratic coalition.”
With just under six months to go until Election Day, Trump leads Biden among registered voters 49%-42% in Arizona, 49%-39% in Georgia, 49%-42% in Michigan, 50%-38% in Nevada, and edges the president 47%-44% in Pennsylvania, with Biden narrowly on top in Wisconsin 47%-45%, the surveys found.
Biden narrowly won all six critical states in 2020. Should Trump win them in 2024 and hold other states he’d won from that year, he would take back the White House.
The polls come as Trump makes history as the first current or former president to stand trial in a criminal case and amid a massive ad blitz by the Biden campaign across the key battleground states.
Wall Street Journal editor-at-large Gerry Baker joked during the segment that “Trump should spend every day between now and Election Day in a courtroom because it seems to be doing him a world of good.”
Fox News contributor Karl Rove agreed that Trump would win a “smashing victory” if the election were held today, but pointed out that Trump’s edge appears to “more about Joe Biden [having] dropped from where he was in 2020 rather than Donald Trump rising above where he was in 2020.”
“If it was anyone other than Donald Trump in this situation, they would probably beat Joe Biden hands-down,” Reines replied. “The truth of the matter here, is the reason it is so tight and the reason neither of them are going anywhere even when Joe Biden goes down, Donald Trump doesn’t go up, is because Trump has really permanent problems there.” READ THE FULL ARTICLE
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