Jayapal: 2024 election ‘in great trouble’ for Biden after new polling

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Sunday that the 2024 election is in “great trouble” for President Biden after new polling showed him trailing former President Trump in multiple battleground states.

“You said the polls really don’t reflect where people are, I agree with you,” Jayapal, who has repeatedly voiced support for Biden, said while speaking with MSNBC host Jen Psaki on Sunday. “But I will tell you — this is the first time, Jen, that I have felt like the 2024 election is in great trouble for the president and for our Democratic control, which is essential to moving forward.”

Jayapal said maintaining Democratic control is important amid the Israel-Hamas war, which was sparked by Hamas’s incursion into Israel last month that killed more than 1,400 people. Israel’s ongoing retaliatory violence in Gaza has killed more than 10,000 Palestinian people, according to a Monday update from the Hamas-ruled health ministry in Gaza.

“Because these young people — Muslim Americans, Arab Americans, but also young people — see this conflict as a moral conflict and a moral crisis,” Jayapal told the former White House press secretary. “And they they are not going to be brought back to the table easily with, you know, if we do not address this.”

A New York Times and Siena College poll published hours before Jayapal’s comments showed Biden trailing Trump in five out of six battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania — by margins of between 3 to 10 percentage points among registered voters.

Biden topped Trump in Wisconsin by 2 percentage points, according to the poll.

The findings dealt the Biden campaign a major blow after the incumbent won in all six states in 2020 against Trump.

Shortly after the poll was published Sunday, David Axelrod suggested Biden drop out of the 2024 presidential race, arguing the poll is set to “send tremors of doubt” through the Democratic Party.

“Only @JoeBiden can make this decision,” Axelrod, who served as former President Obama’s senior adviser, wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it’s in HIS best interest or the country’s?” 

Biden’s reelection campaign has faced growing concerns from voters within his own party over his age and policy actions on various issues, notably the economy. 

At 80, Biden is the oldest U.S. president in history. If reelected in 2024, he would be 86 at the end of his second term.

Pollsters found that 71 percent of registered voters said they agree to some degree that Biden is “just too old to be an effective president,” while only 39 percent said the same about Trump, who is 77.

Asked if Biden has the “mental sharpness to be an effective president,” 62 percent of participants said no, and 35 percent agreed with the statement; 52 percent of participants said they believe Trump has the mental sharpness to be an effective president, while 44 percent said he does not. 

Multiple Democrats have suggested Biden’s age makes him “too old” to run for reelection next year. Biden has argued voters are fair to discuss his age, but has stressed they should judge him on his ability to perform the job.