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A recent Time report laid out a grim picture for President Biden’s re-election hopes, with allies concerned he’s headed for defeat due to insufficient planning and weak support from key Democratic voting blocs, but the Biden campaign rejects the notion it’s running the same playbook as 2020.
Biden is “indeed in trouble,” Time correspondent Charlotte Alter wrote in the piece published Thursday, detailing his low approval ratings, how he trails or ties former President Trump in most polling matchups, and the coalition of minority and young voters that seems to be splintering despite his opponent’s own unpopularity and baggage.
“Despite an attempted insurrection, 88 felony charges, and a record that prompts former aides to warn of the dangers of reinstalling him in office, Trump has never, in three campaigns for the presidency, been in as strong a position to win the White House as he is now. If the election were held tomorrow, more than 30 pollsters, strategists, and campaign veterans from both parties tell Time, Biden would likely lose,” Alter wrote.
The cover of Time going along with the piece simply says “Stuck,” depicting a bicycling Biden stuck in the mud.
Former President Trump and President Biden. (AP)
A former campaign and White House official told Time that Biden’s struggles boiled down to his widely reported struggles with minority voters. Once solid voting blocs for Democrats, Hispanics and Blacks show softening support for Biden in polls that, if accurate, could be a harbinger of a bruising defeat.
“It boils down to voters of color, and those voters are p—ed,” the anonymous official told Time. “I think it’s very likely he’ll lose.”
Even Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., admonished Biden to make his messaging clearer, saying right now it’s too “academic.”
He was also pilloried in the report by Democratic sources for being insufficiently prepared for the campaign, with less than nine months to go. The report opened with anecdotes of former President Obama personally meeting with Biden last year to express his concerns. Other strategists quoted in the story said Biden was clinging to an outdated form of campaigning and couldn’t treat 2024 like he treated 2020.
President Biden is ramping up his re-election efforts. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This is just who Joe Biden is,” a former Biden strategist told Alter. “This is how he’s always run his campaigns. He and his insiders know better. Last time, it worked, so he didn’t learn any of the lessons, and thinks he can run 2020 again.”
A person close to the campaign told it rejected the notion that Biden is running thesame strategy as he did in 2020, referring to a recent NPR report about a new tech effort to boost its ground game and reach persuadable voters.
The campaign also touted earlier this month how his team is opening 100 field offices and hired 350 staffers in battleground states, as well as a $30 million, six-week advertising blitz in the states.
SHARPTON WARNS BIDEN TEAM IT’S TOO COCKY ABOUT BEATING TRUMP: ‘THEIR CONFIDENCE IS MISPLACED’
The Biden team is confident, pointing to past predictions of electoral disaster such as in 2022, when Democrats greatly outperformed expectations ahead of a predicted “red wave.” Biden was also doubted throughout the 2020 Democratic primary before emerging as a consensus candidate and staving off Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and dozens of other challengers.
The Time report also noted Biden intends to use abortion as a wedge issue to drive up turnout and hurt Trump, and continue to tout some of his progressive accomplishments to rev up the base.
“Our biggest strength is that 80million people sent him to the White House before,” Biden deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told Time. “Our challenge is winning people who have already cast a ballot for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris once.”
One key ally doesn’t share the Biden campaign’s confidence: MSNBC host Al Sharpton.
“I tell them their confidence is misplaced,” Sharpton said last week. “I think they’re absolutely too confident.”
David Rutz is a senior editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @davidrutz.
