Biden’s Age, His Chances for Reelection, and the Kamala Harris Factor — Lawless LIVE
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
University of Virginia Political Science Department Chair Jennifer Lawless appeared on GoLocal LIVE, where she spoke about the findings by special counsel Robert Hur, who in his investigation into President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, deemed that he is an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
"It’s obviously not good news for [Biden's] reelection campaign because what it does is provide a bunch of additional examples that allow opponents and people who might have been leery about Biden’s cognitive capacity in the first place to glom on," said Lawless. "I think Biden’s response [that night] was quite powerful and quite telling — obviously, he refuted those statements and he called them inappropriate and said they were just not true, but it’s not, it plays into a narrative that the campaign is has been trying to run away from."
"One of the most damaging questions I think [Biden] received was from a reporter who said look, when we asked you about your age last time around, [you] said watch me, and now, people are watching you and they’re concerned," said Lawless. "[Biden] didn’t seem very well equipped to answer that question."
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTOn Monday, the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris in which she said she is “ready to serve” in the role of the presidency in the event Biden is unable.
While Lawless spoke to how Harris’ approval ratings could be a factor moving forward, she also addressed how she believes the Biden reelection campaign could ultimately be successful.
“[He should] exploit the gender gap to the best of his ability — the Democrats have always benefitted from female voters. Men have always been more likely to support the Republican candidate than women have, but when that gender gap is really, really big, Democrats tend to win, and when it’s somewhat mitigated, Republicans tend to win, so exploiting that gender gap is key, not only among women of color but also particularly Suburban women," said Lawless.
"The second is really focusing on, and it’s related to the first — really focusing on the kinds of issues like reproductive rights that allow Democrats to outperform Joe Biden’s 2020 numbers," said Lawless. "In all of the special elections in 2020, in the 2022 midterms, and in the 2023 legislative elections in Virginia — if that issue agenda remains where it is, he’s going to be able to increase turnout among loyal voters in a way that mitigate some of the loss in other demographic groups."
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