Biden's former communications director urges campaign to show its polling
Former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield pushed for the Biden campaign to show its polling Wednesday, saying, "If they have data that supports the path to victory that they see, they should put it out there now."
“I know firsthand better than almost anyone how smart the Biden team is about data and about ignoring the noise,” Bedingfield said in a series of posts on the social platform X. “They are right that the game here is to convince voters, not pundits. But when the battle over the public data is so overwhelmingly negative, it’s a good moment to put forward your theory of the case.
“If they have data that supports the path to victory that they see, they should put it out there now and help people who badly want to beat Trump rally around it. People want to see the path,” Bedingfield continued.
The Biden camp has made the case that he remains the Democrat best positioned to defeat former President Trump in November, despite the president's poor performance in the pair's first debate last month. Amid fallout over the debate, the Biden campaign in internal messaging has pointed to tight polling against Trump to argue the race remains "steady."
Trump leads President Biden in The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s average of national polls, garnering 44.4 percent support to Biden’s 43.1 percent. A national poll from Emerson College released Tuesday also found Trump leading Biden by 3 points, with Trump earning 46 percent support to Biden’s 43 percent among registered voters.
National and battleground polls released after the debate have done little to calm fears among many Democrats over whether the race is actually close, with multiple Democratic senators over the past day voicing deep concerns about a rout in November. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) told CNN he believes Biden will lose and cost Democrats control of Congress.
ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos noted Biden lagging in polls compared to Trump in an interview with the president last week. When the president was asked whether polling would result in him not trying for a second term in the White House, he responded, “Not when you’re running against a pathological liar.”
Despite continued pushback from Biden and his allies against him leaving the 2024 race, an increasing number of Democratic lawmakers have publicly stated their concern about the viability of his candidacy or have outright called on him to step out of the race.
The Hill has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.