Frustration with President Joe Biden’s standing ahead of the 2024 election is beginning to boil over, as the president himself has begun to second guess some strategic decisions, NBC News reported from a series of interviews with lawmakers and administration officials.
With just about eight months until the 2024 election, Biden is trailing former President Donald Trump in nearly every hypothetical matchup across key swing states. The president is reportedly growing more concerned about his reelection effort and other Democrats are beginning to grow frustrated with Biden’s performance, according to several interviews conducted by NBC News.
“Biden stood up in front of the whole world and said, ‘I’m ready. I’m the guy who can take down Donald Trump,’” Democratic Washington Rep. Adam Smith told NBC News. “So, he goddamn well better do it. We don’t have time for him to be worried about whether or not people are saying things right or the poll numbers are where they should be. I want focused energy and not defensive anger.”
In one meeting, Biden reportedly seethed while reviewing poll numbers in Michigan and Georgia where his popularity had dropped over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, a legislator stated, NBC reported. The president, knowing the states are critical to his 2024 victory, reportedly began to shout and swear.
“President Biden makes national security decisions based on the country’s national security needs alone — no other factor,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told NBC News.
As the president reportedly grows frustrated with his reelection effort, Biden is taking his anger out on his staff, sources told NBC News. When it comes to touting the economy and Biden’s policy accomplishments, the president is reportedly angry his message and branding has not been setting in with Americans, the sources told the outlet.
US President Joe Biden President Biden speaks to local supporters and volunteers at the office opening of the Wisconsin coordinated campaign headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 13, 2024. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
While staffers reportedly give Biden conflicting advice on how to quell concerns about his age, the president is privately second guessing what he should do, NBC News reported.
“The man’s been successful for decades in Congress and became vice president and president,” a fifth source, who previously worked in the Biden administration, told the outlet. “If you try to change the person, you’re making a mistake. Let the president go out there and do his thing.”
As the president flails in the polls, Democrats have agreed Biden needs a coalition of surrogates to help spread his reelection message, NBC News reported. Democratic Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens told the outlet it is the duty of city and town leaders to broadcast Biden’s achievements.
“Coming after a blowhard like Trump who tells you every day what he hates and what he likes, Biden is … soft and calm and getting the work done,” Dickens reportedly said.
“I think it’s actually a bit of a failure of communication on the part of the White House,” Mary Landrieu, a former Democratic senator from Louisiana, told NBC News about the effort to project Biden’s successes.
“There’s a real story to tell,” Landrieu reportedly added about the president’s progress in addressing American high-tech manufacturing. “It’s a winning message and it’s about jobs, prosperity and evolution. If that message can be communicated, I think the American people will respond.”
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