'Never seen a number like this': GOP pollster says Trump is uniquely poised to lose
President Joe Biden's low approval ratings would normally set off major alarm bells for an incumbent president heading into an election year.
However, The Atlantic's Ronald Brownstein reports those low approval numbers may not matter so long as Biden's rival is former President Donald Trump.
In fact, veteran Republican pollster Bill McInturff tells Brownstein that he's seen an unprecedented number of voters say their views of Trump would be their most important consideration when they think about a hypothetical Trump-Biden rematch.
“I have never seen a number like this NBC result between an incumbent and ‘challenger,’” McInturff explained. “If 2024 is a Biden versus Trump campaign, we are in uncharted waters.”
Although most polls currently show Biden trailing Trump in a 2024 matchup, Brownstein argues that Trump's polarizing rhetoric, such as his recent comparisons of his domestic opponents to "vermin," may remind swing voters unhappy with Biden of why they chose him in the first place three years ago.
"In the 2022 and 2023 elections, a crucial slice of voters down on the economy and Biden’s performance voted for Democrats in the key races anyway, largely because they viewed the Trump-aligned GOP alternatives as too extreme," he writes. "Eventually, Trump’s excesses could shape the 2024 election as much as Biden’s record will."