CNN data reporter Harry Enten said Wednesday on CNN’s “News Central” that polling shows President Joe Biden’s base wanted him to get out of the race more than former President George H.W. Bush’s base in 1992, who lost that race.
Host Kate Bolduan said, “So growing number of voters want President Biden to drop out of the race after his poor showing at last week’s debate. This is coming from new numbers out this morning in a CBS News poll. How does this all add to the overall picture of what Biden is up against at this moment and can he make it through?”
Enten said, “Overall yeah, the majority of Americans, 56% say yeah, he should leave the race.”
Bolduan said, “How does how does this compare and what you can compare to in terms of past incumbents who then decided to not run for reelection?”
Enten said, “There are two incumbents who were going to potentially run and then they decided to get out. In 1952, it was Harry S. Truman, in 1968 it was Lyndon B. Johnson. They quit before the nominations were decided. They quit as the primary season was going on.”
He continued, “Back in 1992 remember, George HW Bush faced Pat Buchanan in a primary, it wasn’t too serious. He won all the primaries, but there were still some inkling for him to get out of the race. This polling was taken after he was the presumptive nominee, 21% of Republicans thought that George HW Bush should get out of the race. Compare that now 32% of Democrats think that Joe Biden should get out. These numbers look a lot more comparable than the 52 or the 68 scenario.”
Enten added, “At this particular point, the numbers that Joe Biden is facing amongst his base look a lot more like 1992 when George HW Bush not only state in the race, but he ran hard, obviously lost that November to Bill Clinton.”
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