Former President Donald Trump is leading Vice President Kamala Harris by a significant margin in a pair of new surveys taken after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed his second-in-command.
As noted by Newsweek, an On Point Politics Politics/SoCal Research study was carried out the day after Biden’s statement and asked 801 probable voters. Among them, 51 percent indicated their support for Trump if the 2024 contest took place today, while 43 percent chose Harris. Six percent of the respondents were still undecided.
“Despite garnering millions of donation dollars only hours after Biden stepped down, Harris’ poll performance has shifted little since On Point Politics/SoCal Research conducted a similar poll on July 17. The July 17 poll surveyed 800 voters, of which 52 percent said they would vote for Trump and 44 percent said Harris,” Newsweek continued. “At the time, voters also were polled about who they were more likely to vote for between Biden and Trump since Biden was still in the running. Trump still received the most support at 51 percent, with Biden at 45 percent.”
A separate Morning Consult survey also showed Trump besting Harris 47-45 percent, the outlet reported.
While Harris is the most obvious choice, it is still unclear as to who will actually become the Democratic presidential nominee. Biden has endorsed Harris, as have a number of other leading Democrats including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a fellow Californian.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” Biden said on Sunday during a call into his former campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del.
On Monday, a member of Biden’s family came forward with an explanation for why he decided to drop his reelection bid, though it hasn’t come without controversy.
According to CBS News, Frank Biden, one of two younger brothers to the president, said that Joe Biden’s declining health “absolutely” played “a considerable role” in the decision to drop out of the race, the first incumbent president to do so since Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson did so in 1968.
However, not long after, per CBS News, Joe’s family threw Frank under the bus, claiming that he’s an “alcoholic” who has not spoken to his brother in “weeks,” adding that the claim Joe’s health was a factor is “completely untrue.
WATCH:
Shortly after Biden announced he was dropping out of the race and would not seek reelection, endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump’s campaign put out an ad targeting the veep’s failure to control the southern border and her trademark cackling laugh.
As the video opens, it says, “Warning: The following may upset liberals who don’t want voters to know the truth about Kamala Harris,” then notes her and the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to adequately address the chaotic and virtually open southwestern border.
“If you ever wondered how Joe Biden could get the border so screwed up. Remember, he had help,” a narrator reads. “Here’s Biden appointing Kamala Harris to be his border czar to deal with illegal immigration. And here are a record number of illegal immigrants.”
“10 million and counting flooding over the border after Harris was put in charge of stopping illegal immigration,” the narrator of the Trump ad continues. The ad then shows a clip of Harris during an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt a year or so into her term, where she says she’s not been to the border.
The ad is also permeated with Harris’ laugh, which critics say she often uses when she gets stuck on an issue and cannot come up with an adequate response.
