The politician who suffered a surprising loss to former US President Donald Trump in 2016 remarked on Wednesday that she now knows what it takes to beat him next year.
Former presidential candidate and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she’s still confident in Democratic President Joe Biden’s ability to defeat Trump in a likely rematch during the looming 2024 election.
“He’s done a really good job as president,” she said of Biden during a televised interview, without specifically noting any of his accomplishments.
“If you go back and look at comparable points, [former US President] Barack Obama was behind at this point in his reelection, my husband [former US President Bill Clinton] was behind… until the candidates are actually chosen, people are always saying maybe there’s somebody better out there… That’s natural.”
Clinton expressed confidence that voters would again choose Biden when faced with a binary choice between him and Trump.
“Look at the alternative. Look at what we would face as a country… I think that the chaos that comes with him [Trump] is just not attractive to a majority of people anymore.” Clinton noted Trump’s statements suggesting he would use the Justice Department to exact revenge on political enemies if reelected.
She also referred to recent polling that showed a legal conviction of the former president would convince some of his backers to reconsider their support. Trump is currently facing 91 felony charges across four criminal cases. He has denied any wrongdoing and has called the charges part of a “political witch hunt.”
Clinton further interpreted Democrats’ state-level victories on Tuesday as a sign Democrats would ultimately have the edge in the 2024 election.
“Women are standing up for themselves and they’re voting for their rights and we have enough good men who are coming along with us,” said Clinton, referring to liberals’ electoral win in Ohio that enshrined the right to abortion into the state’s constitution.
Recent polling shows a generic Democratic Party candidate would easily defeat Trump in the 2024 presidential election. But Biden has struggled in recent polls when pitted against Trump directly, with voters overwhelmingly citing Biden’s age as a major concern.
Like Biden, Clinton is typically viewed as hailing from the moderate wing of the Democratic Party. Next year’s election could represent a referendum on the president’s centrist brand of politics, but polling increasingly shows that young people, a key constituency for the party, often skew to the left on many issues. The dynamic has been demonstrated in recent weeks amidst Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which many younger Americans view as an issue of racial justice.
Polling shows most younger Americans oppose Israel while Americans as a whole support a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Biden has so far resisted the demand, although his administration has recently proposed a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting while still advocating for additional lethal aid to Israel.