CNN’s Fareed Zakaria gave his opinion on the 2024 elections and said that Joe Biden has a slim chance of winning in November.
Zakaria, in assessing Biden’s reelection campaign, explained that initially, he believed that Biden’s path to victory would depend on the stability that he promised in 2020, after the turmoil of COVID-19, and the big orange man Donald Trump.
Zakaria predicted that Trump’s election would split Republicans and many of them would be looking for other candidates like Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley. This division, in turn, would energize Democrats and leave Biden to target swing states and independents.
Zakaria acknowledged that the outcome has not been as he had anticipated.
Zakaria confirmed that “Trump now leads in nearly all swing states.” “But these numbers hide even more troubling facts. It’s important to face the facts, especially if you are worried about a possible second Trump term. I know that polls can be inaccurate. In general, polls have underestimated Donald Trump’s popularity, rather than overestimated it. “I doubt there are many shy Biden supporters in the United States.”
He admitted that after going through all the usual Biden talking points about how great the economy is he is not getting enough credit.
Zakaria noted that “the shift is dramatic.” According to a January NBC poll, Trump leads Biden by 22 points in the question of who voters trust to handle the economy. This is a 15-point increase for Trump in comparison to the same poll from 2020.
He pondered, “Perhaps it is because unemployment is a much more widespread problem than inflation. It affects all Americans every single day.”
What do you think?
Zakaria admitted that Biden is still struggling with cultural issues. Biden is far behind in the polls on immigration, despite his belief that Democrats can gain from the Republican Party’s position on abortion. Zakaria doubts even that abortion will play a major role in the election because the decision to regulate abortion is now up to the states.
Zakaria’s biggest concern is the lack of unity within the Democratic Party regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict, whereas Republicans “seem to be uniting around Trump.”
He noted that “whatever opposition he had in the primaries is largely gone.”
The most important admission Zakaria made was the last one.
He said: “And the trials against him keep him in front of the camera, infuriate the base that sees him a martyr, and may even serve to make him an object of sympathy for people who believe his prosecutors have political motives.” “This is my opinion, I doubt that the New York indictment was brought against a defendant who did not have Donald Trump’s name.”
Zakaria admits that the situation could change but is skeptical that it will. He mentioned polls that suggested that if Trump was convicted of a crime, it could sway voters toward Biden. But that seems less likely. He said that the administration could broker a Gaza ceasefire and pursue a wider political settlement, granting Palestinians the right to political rights, and improving Israel’s diplomatic relations, possibly shifting the political wind in his favor. But when has Biden’s team shown any competence so far in handling the Israel/Hamas conflict? Biden denied that he had given Israel aid even though Americans remain hostages. He also suggested that the administration might broker a ceasefire in Gaza and pursue a broader political settlement granting Palestinians political rights and improving Israel’s diplomatic ties.
Zakaria conceded that “trendlines do not work in Biden’s favor.”
He says that Joe Biden needs to take bold, dramatic steps to reverse the trend, such as a change in asylum policy. However, given the dramatic changes in numbers since 2020, there is little he can do to alter the perception.
When the ’24 race began to take shape, I thought Pres. Biden had a strong pitch to voters: a rebounding economy and a return to normalcy after the chaos of Covid & Trump.
Things haven’t played out that way.
My take: pic.twitter.com/WAwifAZjfB
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) May 12, 2024
