CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten warned on Tuesday about how tough it will be for Vice President Kamala Harris to defeat former President Donald Trump in the upcoming election.
President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race on Sunday and endorsed Harris to take his place atop the Democratic ticket after consistently poor polling during his reelection bid against Trump.
Enten on “CNN News Central” said Harris has an uphill battle against Trump because of how popular he is following the Republican National Convention and surviving an assassination attempt.
Read: US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Resigns After Attempted Trump Assassination
“For all of the excitement that Democrats have over Kamala Harris, it is going to be difficult to beat Donald Trump and I want to give you an understanding of why. Let’s take a look here just first at the favorable views of Donald Trump. We know that Donald Trump has historically been unpopular, but take a look now. After the Republican National Convention, in the ABC News/Ipsos poll, he recorded his highest ever favorable rating at 40%. That’s not a one-off,” Enten told host Sara Sidner.
“Take a look at the Quinnipiac University poll, 46%. That’s the highest ever in that pollster. The fact is Donald Trump is more popular now than he ever has been before,” Enten continued. “So, yes, Democrats can make this switcharoo, but they’re still going to have to beat Donald Trump. A Donald Trump, who is stronger, Sara, than he has ever been before.”
Pollster Nate Silver recently described Harris as “mediocre at best” and said Trump would likely defeat her if she replaced Biden, despite her mental fitness compared to the president.
Read: Trump Says He Would Declassify Investigation Files Into Attempted Assassination If Elected
“Donald Trump is running five points better … than he was four years ago against Joe Biden. So at this particular point, whether you look at the favorable ratings, whether you look at the horse race polling, we see that Donald Trump is doing significantly better than he was doing four years ago at this point,” Enten said. “Kamala Harris is going to have to do better than this, of course, if she wants to win the popular vote, but more than that, if she wants to win the Electoral College, which she’ll likely have to outperform how she’s done nationally because the fact is, if you’ve got a tie in the national popular vote, that is probably not good enough if you’re Kamala Harris and you want to win the election against Donald Trump.”
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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