OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Vice President Kamala Harris said on Sunday’s “60 Minutes” that President Joe Biden is “very much alive” and planning to run for re-election.
The ongoing Israel-Gaza War, the border crisis, and the upcoming presidential election were just a few of the topics that Harris and Bill Whitaker discussed.
“We were talking to some democratic donors, and they have told us that, should something befall President Biden, and he is not able to run, that there would be a free for all for who would run as president. You are in the spot that that would be a natural for you to step up. But we’re hearing from donors that they would not naturally fall into line. Why is that?” Whitaker asked.
“First of all, I’m not going to engage in that hypothetical because Joe Biden is very much alive and running for re-election,” Harris responded.
“But you do know,” Whitaker interjected. “I mean, that is a concern and a legitimate concern, I would say.”
“I hear from a lot of different people a lot of different things. But let me just tell you, I’m focused on the job. I truly am. Our democracy is on the line, Bill. And I, frankly, in my head do not have time for parlor games, when we have a president who is running for re-election,” Harris said.
After a lengthy pause, Harris posited, “That’s it.”
The question came after Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips announced that he would be challenging Biden in the Democratic primaries to force the party to “pass the torch” to the new generation. The interview did not mention Phillips’ campaign.
Democratic voters have long expressed concern about Biden’s age and health, despite the fact that he is currently serving as vice president. A second term as president would bring the president’s age to 82.
Harris’s dismal approval rating, meanwhile, remains unchanged. In the show, Whitaker mentioned that only 41% of adults surveyed by CBS were happy with her performance as vice president. Harris, however, didn’t seem to care about poll numbers.
“When the American people are able to take a close look at election time on their options, I think the choice is going to be clear, Bill. We’re going to win. Let me just tell you that we’re going to win. And I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but we will win,” Harris concluded.
WATCH:
A leading pollster recently predicted a potential “electoral landslide” for Trump next year as President Joe Biden continues to slide in approval ratings and “Bidenomics” continues to eat into ordinary Americans’ paychecks.
In an interview with radio host Michael Patrick Leahy for The Tennessee Star report on Tuesday, pollster John McLaughlin discussed what current state and national polling means, what polls to watch, and how to analyze new polling as it comes out in the months ahead.
McLaughlin began by noting that the more legal trouble Trump faces, the more his polling numbers rise.
“We see, apparently, every time the Department of Justice or a state left-wing district attorney indicts Donald Trump, his poll numbers go up,” Leahy began. “I’m looking at the Morning Consult poll today. Just came out: Trump 61; DeSantis 13; Haley 7; Ramaswamy 7; Pence 5; Christie 3; Scott 1; Burgum 1. Trump by 48 points.
“Morning Consult has Trump and Biden tied, but I’ve seen Trump up 9 in the Washington Post poll; and Trump up 3 in another. The polls say it’s looking good for Donald J. Trump,” he added, swinging it over to McLaughlin:
McLaughlin then made a startling prediction:
Yes, because it would be an electoral landslide because when you look at it, due to the census, there’s a little more electoral vote our way.
But if you look at the toss-up states from last time and you say, ‘This means he’s going to win Wisconsin, Michigan’ – that’s why I went to Detroit last week to stand up for union workers, going to lose their jobs in China.
Arizona has 11 electoral votes.
Nevada 6 – we could win that. That was close last time.
We’ll win Georgia because they changed the election law to require a voter ID, not just for in-person but also for absentees—there are 16 electoral votes there.
We got a shot at Pennsylvania in spite of their attempts to manipulate the mail-in votes. There are 19 electoral votes there.
And Ohio has 7 – Ohio, we’re gonna win.
But there are 77 electoral votes that would switch.
So we would go from last time, 232 electoral votes – we’d be at 304 already.
