(Headline USA) President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have been complaining to their aides about his low poll numbers leading into the 2024 election and blaming his campaign for not mitigating the damage, according to the Washington Post.
The Post reported that Joe Biden gathered a group of campaign and White House officials together after the annual turkey pardon and “delivered some stern words [because] … [h]is poll numbers were unacceptably low and he wanted to know what his team and his campaign were doing about it.”
Joe Biden was specifically upset with the failure of his economic messaging “to move the ball, even as the economy was growing and unemployment was falling,” sources told the publication.
Jill Biden has also “grown upset” that her husband’s team is “not making more progress,” especially as more and more poll results show Joe Biden trailing former President Donald Trump, the Post said.
When asked about the report, White House spokesman Andrew Bates declined to deny the allegations.
“We do not discuss the president’s private conversations one way or the other,” he said. “The president and first lady meet regularly with their senior team for updates and to review plans.”
The concerns with Biden’s reelection campaign aren’t just coming from within the White House. Outside of it, a growing number of Biden allies are beginning to distance themselves from the president.
“I feel the same way I did in 2015 and 2016,” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., told the Post, warning that Biden will have a difficult time winning the state of Michigan again.
Former Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., agreed that his home state of Pennsylvania, which helped Biden secure the White House in 2020, is not looking good for Democrats this time around.
“We feel like we have a good story to tell, but that doesn’t seem to be registering yet,” he explained, adding that it’s left Democrats in a “state of paralysis” as to how to help Biden’s campaign.
