I welcome Ron Faucheaux, Political Analysts and Publisher of Lunchtime Politics on the show regularly to find out what you, the voters, are thinking about on some of the national issues that the country is facing. Just when I think President Joe Biden’s approval rating couldn’t get lower, they sink to another all-time low. Faucheaux explains that despite those historically low numbers, Biden is likely to remain in the White House if Donald Trump returns for another presidential run.
Ron, explain your comments that you wouldn't want to be the White House staffer who had to bring these approval numbers into the Oval Office.
The latest round of the polls have been just awful for President Biden. A poll done by the New York Times reported that only 33% think Biden is doing a good job as President. Only 26% of Democrats said they wanted him to be re-nominated, and 60% of Democrats said they wanted someone else to represent the Democratic Party in the 2024 presidential election. He’s been getting these poor ratings all over a variety of polls.
Interestingly, Biden’s response to these low ratings is that if Donald Trump runs for president, 92% of Democrats say they will vote for him. That’s not the real challenge for him is it? What about the independent voters?
He's right to the extent that if Trump would become the Republican nominee again, a lot of the polls show Biden would beat Trump again. It would be very close, but there'd be a lot of voters who would vote for a third party candidate or who just wouldn't vote. Biden got 51% of the vote in 2020. He’s polling at 44% right now against Trump, so he lost 7%... The thing about Trump is that his negative ratings are as high as Biden’s. Even though people are very unhappy with Biden, a large part of the electorate is very unhappy with Donald Trump too.
It seems like the best thing Donald Trump has going for him is Joe Biden and the best thing Joe Biden has going for him is Donald Trump!
If either of these parties nominates a new face who's got broad appeal, they would clearly win. The problem for Democrats and Republicans is the same problem. If either Biden or Trump get their party’s nomination and have to face a new candidate with less negative ratings, then they will likely lose the election.
In your mind what should be the next steps for the Republican party? I’ve said since early on that the GOP needs to put Trump in the rearview mirror. I think it's hard to re-nominate a guy who got beat and have him come back and win.
Trump never won the popular vote and never had the majority of the American people on his side. The Republican party could do much, much better if Trump was not around. Republican voters have paid their debt to Donald Trump, I don't think they owe him a third try at the White House. If they're really interested in beating the Democrats, beating Biden, and advocating for conservative policies, they would do better with a new candidate.
