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A “Morning Joe” panel on Friday warned about how challenging it will be for Vice President Kamala Harris to defeat former President Donald Trump in the November election.

Trump is currently leading Harris in the main battleground states by 0.1%, according to the RealClearPolling (RCP) average. MSNBC hosts Jonathan Lemire and Joe Scarborough, as well as former MSNBC host Chris Matthews, said the election will likely be extremely tight, also noting that Trump historically outperforms the margin of voters that polls project him to receive.

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“The top super PAC associated with the Harris campaign has let it be known to some reporters that their internal polling is, in their words, a little less rosy than some of the public polling. Some other Democratic polling firms that I’ve talked to in the last couple of days say the same,” Lemire said. “They say the battleground states are virtually tied. In a lot of the public polls right now, we’re seeing Harris up a few points, often within the margin of error. They’re suggesting it’s a little closer than that.”

“And as we well know, polling has been off the last couple of cycles, and in favor of, on Election Day, Republicans. Republicans being undercounted in the polls, therefore doing better on election day,” he continued. “Joe Biden was up by several points in the polls than he ended up winning by four years ago.”

Lemire also said Democrats “feel really good” after the Democratic National Convention.

“They feel like they have the wind at their back, but there’s a lot of work ahead, because this race is going to be decided, most likely, by a razor-thin margin, despite how flailing Trump seems to be at the moment,” he continued.

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“It’s gonna be close. And Chris Matthews, I remember the RealClearPolitics average in 2020 in Michigan going into Election Day was Biden plus nine. There were polls that showed Biden winning Wisconsin by double digits,” Scarborough said. “Of course, everybody thought that Hillary Clinton was going to win. I talked to her pollsters after the exit polls at 6:30, 6:45 and they said the question is whether we win six or seven swing states, everything’s looking great for us tonight. So, yeah, Democrats have a reason to play scared, to play, as they’ve all said, like we’re three points behind, a field goal behind in the fourth quarter. We get to drive down the field and win it.”

Harris is only leading Trump by 2% in Michigan and 1% in Wisconsin, according to the RCP averages.

“You got to look at states like North Carolina and Arizona and, of course, Georgia. Now, you may get a break with minority voting down in Georgia, but you could also come up short in Pennsylvania and not quite win in North Carolina,” Matthews said. “This could squeak. This could be the toughest election, because if Pennsylvania doesn’t go the Democratic way and North Carolina doesn’t go that way, it’s tough, it’s really tough.”

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