New poll shows impact of Biden’s debate performance

New poll shows impact of Biden’s debate performance

You have new reporting. The President Biden’s family is encouraging the president to stay in the 2024 race. Defying calls for him to step aside following his alarming performance on Thursdays in Thursday’s debate. The family is meeting at Camp David tonight. This is part of a planned gathering that was scheduled before the debate, we’re told. And the message out of that meeting, at least for now, appears to support to be support for the president to continue pursuing a second presidential term seen as facil. Alvarez joins us now in Washington. Priscilla, what’s your latest reporting at this hour? Well, the president is huddling with his family following the immediate fallout of his debate performance on Thursday night. And Biden advisers are telling CNN that his family is encouraging him to stay in the race and supporting him and expressing that support, including Hunter Biden and the president’s grandchildren. These advisers also saying that the conversations have been focused on how the family can help the president and not whether he should reconsider his candidacy. Of course, all of this, all of these conversations follow what has transpired since Thursday night’s debate as there have been calls for the president to withdraw from the race, including an editorial boards, as well as all corners of the Democratic Party. Now, the president himself has also been collecting data anecdotally and through public polling, as he too, tries to assess what what folks are feeling across the party. And that has been a deep concern. Panic has certainly set in. Donors have been wracked with anxiety over the president’s poor performance on Thursday night. And now the president, of course, did participate in a fundraising blitz over the weekend where he, too, conceded that Thursday night was not his best debate performance, but said that he would continue to fight and that he wanted to stay in the race. But the president and his campaign are certainly, Alisyn, under great scrutiny tonight. And what we know so far from the huddle that he had with his family at Camp David today is that he has the support of his family and their encouragement. Of course, that is no small thing. These are key players in President Biden’s orbit and have been crucial in a lot of his decision making when it comes to running for president. Priscilla, thank you very much for all of that reporting. We’re joined now by CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten. He is here to run the numbers. So, Harry, do we have new poll numbers for President Biden post-debate? We do. You know, CBS News YouGov conducted some polling. Post-debate, We can compare it to the pre-debate numbers. And the bottom line is, it’s not any good. It’s not any good. Look at this. Voters who say that Biden has the mental health to be president. It was just 35% pre-debate. Look where it’s dropped to now. Post-debate, 27%. How about that? He should be running for president. It was 37% pre-debate. It’s now 28%. I have never seen numbers this bad for an incumbent president during my lifetime. I mean, that mental health to be president, just 27%. You might say, okay, you know, that’s low. But a lot of people thought Biden was too old back in 2020. These numbers look nothing like this back in 2020. These numbers are bad already. And the truth is, Alison, they have gotten just considerably worse even in just a few days after that first presidential debate. Harry, do we have polling yet that suggests that voters want a different candidate? Yeah, this is the whole question. Right? If it’s not President Biden, then who could it be on the Democratic side? And the truth is, there are no easy answers. You know, I went back and looked at the polling versus Donald Trump for a bunch of different Democrats have been suggested. Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, look at this. They all trail Donald Trump. So the idea here that we’re somehow going to get this magic bullet, that there’s somehow going to be some Democrat who can beat Donald Trump easily, I just don’t see it in the numbers at this particular point. If Joe Biden takes on Donald Trump, he’s trailing. If there’s another Democrat who runs against Donald Trump, they too are trailing. Perhaps you want to make the argument you bring in another Democrat who isn’t as well known as Joe Biden, who’s universal, has universal name recognition, and maybe they could change the numbers. But the fact is, any Democrat who entered the race right now, at least among those that are being suggested by a bunch of folks, they would all enter the race at this particular point as an underdog to former President Donald Trump. But, Harry, are those numbers, old numbers or are those since the debate? I mean, maybe they’re not changed yet. Those are not numbers that have been taken since the debate, though. I was looking at numbers that were post-debate. This takes into account an average a long term average, Right. Because the key is I don’t just want to rely upon one polling number, but even the limited polling data that we have post-debate suggest that none of those candidates on your screen, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris, any of those would be favored over Donald Trump. He leads against all of them. Whether you look at the pre-debate numbers or the post-debate numbers. And of course, I like to look at an aggregate of numbers. So that’s what I did. But the fact is, even if you just did post-debate, it really wouldn’t look any different. Hmm. Do you have any precedent for how lopsided Thursday’s debate was? Yeah. I mean, if you want to take one solace, if you are Joe Biden, the fact is first debate winner margins. Look, Donald Trump, more people by a 3434 point margin said that Donald Trump beat Joe Biden in a debate that’s not much different than what Joe Biden’s margin over was over Donald Trump four years ago. It’s actually larger than the Hillary Clinton margin that she had over Donald Trump. But you may remember that first debate back in 2012 where Barack Obama just did horribly. Mitt Romney won that debate and the voters minds by 42 points. But of course, he didn’t become president. Barack Obama was reelected. So I guess if you want to take a look on the one bright note is there is a history of someone losing the first debate as an incumbent and going on to win the presidency. And that was 12 years ago. Okay. So you’re saying that somebody I mean, you have seen examples of somebody, you know, coming from behind basically in that way after after a poor debate? Yeah, that is true. But here’s the thing that I would note, which is that Joe Biden was trailing going into the first debate. Okay, Barack Obama was leading. So I want to limit it down for you. Incumbents who were trailing going into the first debate and then lost that first debate. Well, how about Jimmy Carter lost that one debate. He took on Ronald Reagan in 80. George H.W. Bush lost that first debate to both Ross Perot and Bill Clinton. And in 2020, Donald Trump lost that first debate to Joe Biden. Well, guess what else? And they all lost. They all lost. So the question is for Joe Biden Can he defy history, create new history, and be an incumbent who trailed going into that first debate and then one. Well, he’s going to have to do it if he wants to get reelected in November. Herenton, thank you very much for sharing all of these new numbers with us. Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan. Congresswoman, always great to see you. Thank you for making time for us tonight. You’ve known President Biden and his family for a long time. What do you think he’s wrestling with tonight? Do you think he is wrestling with this decision? First of all, I have not talked to anybody in the family since the debate on Thursday night. We I said on Friday morning, we can’t sugarcoat this. Thursday night was not a good night. And we know what he’s got to do. He has to go out to prove to the American people that he can still enact that he can. I mean, he has done a great job as president. And we have two, four years of Donald Trump compare to four years of Joe Biden. But he got to go out there and show people it was a bad night, that he is capable of doing the job. He can’t make mistakes. And I think he gets that. I think this family is a very close family. They’re talking to each other and I think a whole lot of people are wringing their hands, adding to the drama. I know one thing. I know what’ll happen if we have another four years of Donald Trump. And I am working to remind everybody of how much he doubled down on Thursday night about a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. How January six was okay, making fun of veterans, not saying he’ll protect seniors and Social Security, that he will protect his billionaire friend. I’ve been I’ve been to probably 30 events since I left Washington on Friday. And while all my friends in Washington, my colleagues, everybody else is talking and wringing their hands, believe it or not, back here, people are talking about it here at home. Some people are saying it was a bad debate. I had one African-American male who was not leaning towards Joe Biden said to me after listening to Donald Trump Thursday night, I think I know more why I should vote for Joe Biden. It’s a long time between now and November, and every one of us has a job to do to remind people what will happen if we have a second Trump presidency. Well, I mean, a couple of things. The first time for Democrats, the president’s poor performance eclipsed some of the substance or the answers of what Donald Trump gave. And so obviously, the president is having to and Democrats are having to fight that wave. Also, there’s you know, basically it’s not just pundits. It’s also voters, because we do have new polling out. And you just heard from Harry Enten. So there’s this new CBS poll out today. It shows that 72% of the voters polled do not think that Joe Biden should be running again. That’s up 9% from a poll in February. So what does that make you think? Congresswoman, you know what else? It reminds me of in 215 and 216 when nobody thought Hillary Clinton could win. And I kept telling people, I have a gut I have. And I kept, you know, how many people I’ve told Donald Trump could win this election and he would win the election. The Detroit Free Press had headlines declaring Hillary Clinton the winner that night. So these are polls where all Trump numbers just the way they are. Those who prep Joe Biden probably gave him too many numbers for Thursday night. It’s a long way between now and November. A lot of things can happen. We know that the president has to show people it was a bad night. He’s up to the job. He had a cold. I mean, that’s what we’re being told. He has to show people that that’s the case. But these numbers also are mumbo jumbo to me, because the only poll that matters is back at Election Day. And we have a lot of work to do. Thursday night wasn’t good. We got an hour road ahead of.

CNN’s Harry Enten looks at a new poll that shows how much President Biden’s performance impacted voters’ views of him taken after the CNN Presidential Debate between Biden and Donald Trump.

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