President Joe Biden on Tuesday maintained that Democratic voters “want” him to run again in 2024, misrepresenting the results of a recent New York Times/Siena College poll.
The poll, published Monday, found that 64% of Democratic voters want another 2024 candidate. Reporters asked Biden what his message is to Democrats who, based on the poll’s findings, don’t want him running again. The president first claimed that the party does want him in 2024. (RELATED: New NYT Poll Shows ‘Staggering’ Amount Of Americans Believe US Heading In Wrong Direction)
“They want me to run,” the president declared.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson then quickly pointed out the 64% number — a number that the president suggested was incorrect.
“Read the poll. Read the polls, Jack. You guys are all the same. That poll showed that 92% of Democrats, if I ran, would vote for me,” Biden responded, incorrectly citing another portion of the poll.
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“But 92% said if I did [run], they’d vote for me,” the president continued after Gittleson again noted that the “majority of Democrats” don’t want him to run.
While the 92% number Biden referenced is in the poll, it specifically refers to the percentage of Democrats who would vote for Biden if the only other alternative is former President Donald Trump.
“The poll showed that Democratic misgivings about Mr. Biden seemed to mostly melt away when presented with a choice between him and Mr. Trump: 92 percent of Democrats said they would stick with Mr. Biden,” The Times reported Monday.
Biden claims the NYT poll found that 92% of Dems would vote for him if he ran.
That 92% number is *specifically* in reference to Democrats being presented with a choice between Trump or Biden. The poll found that 64% of Dem voters want another 2024 candidate ⬇️ https://t.co/RgJLR24MxK pic.twitter.com/KkfU8s93YD
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) July 12, 2022
On Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed the same poll and misrepresented the same 92% portion.
“I would also say, from that very same poll, there were 92% of Democrats who support this President as well,” Jean-Pierre said after she was asked for Biden’s response to the poll.
“There’s going to be many polls, they’re going to go up, they’re going to go down. This is not the thing that we are solely focused on,” she added.
Soon afterwards, Jean-Pierre issued a further dismissal of polls, declaring to the room that the administration is “not going to pay attention” to them.
“That’s not what we’re going to do here,” she said.