CNN’s Fareed Zakaria is warning is the election “trends” are not going the right way for President Joe Biden.
During a segment of his show “GPS Fareed Zakaria” Sunday, the journalist said, “I have to admit, none of this is playing out as I thought it would. Trump is now leading in almost all the swing states. But behind those numbers lie even more troubling details. As someone worried about the prospects of a second Trump term, I think it’s best to be honest about reality.”
“I understand that polls are not always accurate, but in general, they have tended to underestimate Donald Trump’s support, not overestimated. I doubt that there are many shy Biden voters in the country,” Zakaria added.
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NEW: CNN’s Fareed Zakaria doesn’t see a path for a Joe Biden victory in 2024 as of now and says Democrats need to be “honest about reality.”
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 12, 2024
“I have to admit, none of this is playing out as I thought it would.”
Zakaria shockingly admitted that the New York indictment was a… pic.twitter.com/erNTqfUFKf
He went on to say the economy has been experiencing a “robust recovery,” but noted an NBC News poll from Jan. 2024 found voters said they trust former President Donald Trump to handle the economy more than Biden.
While polls show Democrats have an advantage of the issues of abortion, they also show Republicans have an advantage on the issues of immigration and questioned how potent abortion will be in presidential election.
Zakaria then turned to division in the Democrat Party caused by Israel’s war against Hamas:
“Only 33% of Americans said they approved of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, which is now opposed both by people who think he is too soft and people who think he is too hard on Israel. Meanwhile, Republicans seem to be uniting behind Trump. Whatever opposition he faced in the primaries has largely melted away, and the trials against him keep him in the spotlight, infuriate his base, who sees him as a martyr and even may serve to make him the object of some sympathy among people in general who believe that his prosecutors are politically motivated.”
He added, “This happens to be true, in my opinion. I doubt the New York indictment would have been brought against a defendant whose name was not Donald Trump. A majority of Americans are skeptical that Trump will be able to get a fair trial, according to a CNN poll.”
Finally, he suggested the election could go to Biden if Trump is convicted and a ceasefire deal is reached in Gaza.
“But trend lines are not working in Biden’s favor. He needs to do something bold and dramatic to seize the initiative on asylum policy, for example, and reverse these numbers. The one that troubles me the most is on the question of who was the more competent,” Zakaria said.
He added, “Joe Biden led Donald Trump by nine points in 2020, but Trump now leads by 16 points in January 2024. That 25 point shift could be a reflection of people’s sense that the president’s age is affecting his capacity to govern, and there’s very little that Joe Biden can do now to change that perception.”
The segment comes as a New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer poll found Trump leading Biden in the key states of Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, and Nevada. The former president was trailing in Wisconsin.
