On Monday, MSNBC analyst Cornell Belcher laughably claimed that President Joe Biden is in better shape than former President Barack Obama was to win re-election, and told potential rivals that Biden will “kick your tail” in the primary.
As of now, Biden’s only official primary challenger is Marianne Williamson. However, Democratic polls suggest that the party is looking for a change.
While appearing on MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Reports, Belcher told host Chris Jansing that Biden has a high approval rating among Democrats, which demonstrates that he’d beat any primary challenger to face him.
The author and political strategist also alluded to Biden’s “accomplishments” as evidence that he is in a better place than the last several incumbents before him to win a general election.
Jansing asked, “Is that something Democrats should be hoping for? I mean, ultimately, it’s all about the eight, right? It’s the eight in front of the number of his age.”
Belcher replied, “Well, no, you’re absolutely right, Chris. Look, I mean, look, you know, a little insider thing here. Nowhere in modern history has an incumbent with anything approaching an 84% approval rating ever lost reelection. Right. So this whole ideal that…”
Jansing pushed back, “But that’s with Democrats, you think…
Belcher cut in, “As well. But we’re talking about the primary. Right. So he has a 84 over rating among Democrats. So. So this whole ideal that he shouldn’t run? Sort of, and some people should primary him is an absurd idea because if you challenged him he’d kick your tail in a primary because no incumbent with an 84% approval rating loses reelection in the primary.”
“Now, if we’re going to talk about the general election, look, I would argue, look, I worked for Obama in both of his campaigns. I think you can make the argument that Biden actually enters reelection at a stronger position than Obama did. I would actually make the argument that he ends his reelection in a stronger position than Bill Clinton or George Bush did,” he continued.
Belcher asserted, “And why do you say that, Cornell? I say that because this: If you look at the transformational pieces of legislation that he has been able to move that are astonishingly popular, he’s got more popular legislation already under his belt than I think the last three presidents had when you just look at the popularity of those legislation.”
He argued, “If you look at the economy, we have historic job growth right now and we have inflation coming under control. We have an economy that, quite frankly, most of the rest of the Western world wish they had.”
Belcher added, “And you also have him standing on the world stage as a strong, steady leader, bringing back respectability that to, you know, to America and American leadership that we had lost under Trump. And you also have him sort of as a historic midterm, the best midterm we’ve seen in modern history. He absolutely enters reelection better position than the last three presidents who won reelection.”
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