Liberal news commentators haver questioned US President Joe Biden's leadership after a poll put him near-tied with Donald Trump despite criminal charges against the Republican.
US TV anchor Jonathan Karl pointed to a Quinnipiac poll, conducted after Trump's indictment last week for possessing allegedly classified White House documents, that put Biden on 48 per cent support to his main rival's 44 per cent.
"That’s within the margin of error. That’s a statistical tie," Karl said on his This Week show on Sunday, asking his panellists: "What does that say about Biden if he's barely beating Trump?".
"It says the country is very divided," replied former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile. "The country is really looking to get beyond 2020. It says a lot about where we are as a nation and not where we are in terms of whose personally popular at this time."
Brazile, who revealed that the 2016 Democratic primaries were fixed to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, insisted that Biden had "a remarkable story to tell" — a day after the 80-year-old president ended a speech on gun control with the words "All right. God Save the Queen, man" — seemingly forgetting which country he was in and that British Queen Elizabeth II passed away nine months earlier.
Former Republican governor of Maryland Larry Hogan claimed both the current and previous president had low approval ratings among voters, who did not want either to stand. He even floated the idea that a "third party" candidate could come through the middle and beat both.
"Never before in history have I seen a time where this might be possible, and it’s possible," Hogan said.
However, polling for the 2024 Republican primary round show Trump holding an overwhelming lead over his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, with more than half of registered party supporters backing him on average.