Former Vice President Joe Biden challenged President Donald Trump on the polls Monday and said he could win a number of traditional red states next year – including Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas.
‘I plan, if I’m your nominee, I plan on winning Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, believe it or not,’ Biden told The Poor People’s Campaign, an anti-poverty group, at Trinity University in Washington D.C.
‘And I believe we can win Texas and Florida, if we look at the polling data now,’ he added.
Former Vice President Joe Biden challenged President Donald Trump on poll numbers
President Donald Trump pushed back against reports his own internal polls showed him losing to the Democratic nominee in 15 out of 17 states
Still, Biden conceded, with more than 16 months to go until Election Day, things can change.
‘It’s a marathon, it’s a long way off,’ the former vice president said.
Biden, the front runner for the Democratic nomination, specifically mentioned four states where Trump’s internal poll numbers were reported to show him trailing the Democratic nominee.
He and the president have been going mano-a-mano since the former vice president entered the presidential race.
South Carolina was a more curious mention by the vice president, given it’s a deeper red state. Trump won it by 14 points in 2016 and no Democrat has won the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
North Carolina and Florida are more competitive ‘purple’ states – states who swing back and forth between Democrat and Republican candidates, often putting one contender over the top and into the White House.
Democrats, meanwhile, argue it’s only a matter of time before Georgia – with its African American population – and Texas – with its Latino population – switch from red to blue.
In recent years they’ve been investing more time and resources into those states.
Democrat Stacey Abrams came within two points of winning the gubernatorial mansion in Georgia last year and blamed her loss on the suppression of African American voters.
Trump’s internal polling showed him six points behind Biden in Georgia, NBC News reported.
In Texas, the latest Quinnipiac poll had Biden beating Trump by four points.
Trump won Texas by 9 per cent in 2016 and his used his star power in the state in 2018 to help Republican Sen. Ted Cruz defeat Democratic rival Beto O’Rourke in that competitive contest.
But O’Rourke came within three points of knocking off Cruz – helping Democratic hopes the state could be theirs in a future election.
A Democratic presidential nominee hasn’t won the state of Texas since Carter in 1976.
Florida is more complicated.
The latest Florida poll had the two men tied 50-50.
But a March poll had more troubling numbers for the president: 40 per cent said he should be reelected, while 53 per cent were opposed to him having a second term, a Bendixen & Amandi International poll found.
Biden addressed the Poor People’s Campaign, an anti-poverty group, in Washington DC
Trump heads to Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday where he will formally launch his bid for a second term. The president won the state with 49 per cent in 2016.
An Emerson poll in North Carolina had Biden up by 12 points. Trump won it by 4 percent in the last presidential election.
Trump has been slamming the polls since reports on his own internal polls showed him losing to the Democratic nominee in 15 out of 17 states – including Florida, Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.
He scoffed at the thought he could be behind.
‘I don’t believe those polls. There’s no way he beats me in Texas,’ he told ABC News.
‘My polls show I’m winning everywhere,’ he added.
Biden, meanwhile, went on the attack against the president while addressing the Poor People’s Campaign – an organization started by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr to combat poverty in the United States – on Monday.
The former vice president slammed Trump for his tirade against immigrants.
‘Look what’s happening now: the reason why so many folks are poor is because of all those immigrants, all those Muslims, all those African Americans – it’s a bunch of malarkey,’ Biden said.
‘We have to stop letting these guys use the divisions that exist in the country as these charlatans always do to divide the country. Well, the reason why the black man doesn’t have a job in your county is because of that white immigrant coming across the border here, or that Hispanic or that Muslim or whatever. It’s all used by charlatans all the time. And we have a guy in the White House who’s turned it into an art form. It has to end. It has to end,’ he noted.
Biden also pledged to keep up the fight against poverty no matter if he wins the Democratic nomination or not.
‘I have no intention in walking away if I’m the nominee and I have no intention of walking away if I’m not the nominee,’ he said.