ollster Nate Silver warned Monday that President Biden’s approval ratings are so low that it may be time for him to reconsider seeking re-election in November.
“Biden just hit a new all-time low in approval (37.4%),” the data analyst and founder of FiveThirtyEight wrote on X, referencing his organization’s latest average of the president’s job approval numbers.
“Dropping out would be a big risk,” Silver argued. “But there’s some threshold below which continuing to run is a bigger risk.”
“Are we there yet? I don’t know,” the polling guru acknowledged. “But it’s more than fair to ask.”
Silver has long been concerned with the 81-year-old incumbent’s ability to beat former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
Silver caused a stir in February when he argued that there might be Democrats who are better equipped to take on the 77-year-old former president. Last month, he suggested Biden should consider stepping aside.
“What’s clearer [in my opinion] is that Democrats would have been better served if Biden had decided a year ago not to seek a second term, which would have allowed them to have some semblance of a primary process and give voters a say among the many popular Democrats across the country,” he said Monday.
Silver noted that Biden is in “MUCH worse shape,” in terms of polling, than he was in 2020 heading into Election Day, when he held leads in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Florida and North Carolina.