President Joe Biden believes he has what it takes to defeat his predecessor Donald Trump in a rematch in 2024.
Biden made the comment during a
wide-ranging interview with CNN on Oct. 11, and added that he won’t decide on whether to run for reelection until after the November midterm elections.
“Is one of the calculations that you think you’re the only one who can beat Donald Trump?” CNN host Jake Tapper asked the president.
“I believe I can beat Donald Trump again,” Biden responded.
Despite Biden’s optimism about a potential rematch, the president’s approval rating has remained low.
According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, 55 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s job performance, while 40 percent approve.
The poll also showed that 31 percent of Americans—including 21 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of Republicans—saw the U.S. economy as the most concerning problem facing the country.
Two recent polls pitting Biden against Trump in a hypothetical 2024 matchup showed the former president would come up on top.
According to a survey from Emerson College Polling and The Hill released on Oct. 11, Trump garnered 45 percent support from Georgia voters, edging out Biden by two percentage points in 2024.
In Iowa, Trump boasted a bigger lead in a potential 2024 showdown, picking up 47 percent of support compared to Biden’s 39 percent,
according to a survey from Emerson College Polling released on Oct. 7.
This is not the first time that Biden indicated that he would like to run against Trump again. In March, he
told reporters at a NATO summit that he would be “very fortunate” to be in such a rematch in 2024.
During the CNN interview, Biden was also asked how some Democratic voters want a new nominee for 2024 because they consider the president too old for the job. Biden turns 80 in November.
“Look what I’ve gotten done. Name me a president in recent history who has gotten as much done as I have in the first two years. Not a joke. You may not like what I got done, but the vast majority of American people do like what I got done,” Biden said in response.
“It’s a matter of, can you do the job? And I believe I can do the job,” the president added.
Economy
Biden’s comments on his accomplishments caught the attention of Senate Republicans, who then took to
Twitter to criticize the president.
“Joe Biden asked if any President has done more in the first two years of their administration,” GOP senators wrote. “His first two years: record inflation, reckless spending, economy in recession, open borders, surging crime.”
The U.S. annual inflation rate topped
8.3 percent in August and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to announce September’s data on Oct. 13.
The U.S. economy
contracted by 1.6 percent in the first quarter and 0.6 percent in the second quarter of 2020. While some economists consider two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth as meeting the criteria for a recession, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the official arbiter of U.S. recessions, has yet to declare the U.S. economy to be in a recession.
Biden downplayed the possibility of a recession, when the CNN host asked him about comments made by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who
said on Oct. 10 that the United States is likely to enter a recession in the next six to nine months.
“Should the American people prepare for a recession?” Tapper asked.
“No,” Biden said, before adding: “I don’t think there will be a recession. If it is, it will be a slight recession—that is, we'll move down slightly.”
Some Republicans have since disputed Biden’s view on recession, including House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).
“Joe Biden is out of touch with the reality faced by hardworking families in #NY21 and across the country every day,” Stefanik
wrote on Twitter. “We have been in a recession since July. It is the Biden Recession.”
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