Although Vice President Kamala Harris has maintained a historically low approval rating throughout the Biden administration, her numbers are marginally higher than her boss in most polls.
As an increasing number of Americans — including some prominent Democrats — begin to publicly wish for someone other than President Joe Biden to secure the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, his vice president is the most obvious alternative. Despite her track record of delivering incomprehensible statements on a host of topics, former President Donald Trump recently indicated that he believes Harris would nevertheless be a better leader than Biden.
Trump, who is widely expected to take on Biden in a rematch of the 2020 election, said earlier this month that he does not believe the president “makes it” to Election Day.
“I think he’s in bad shape physically,” he said of the 81-year-old incumbent in response to a question from Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity.
More recently, Trump opined on the Democratic Party’s lineup of potential presidential options when conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked whether Biden voters would essentially be casting a vote for Harris.
“I think so,” the former president said. “I mean, let’s see what happens. I’m not sure that he gets to the starting gate, to be honest. I don’t know. I would guess at the starting gate, but certainly I think so. It seems like he’s locked into her for a lot of reasons. He has to choose her. I understand. It would seem like the Democrats, if he doesn’t run, have to run her.”
Although Trump went on to express some doubt regarding whether the party would be pressured into nominating either Biden or Harris next year, he added: “I think she’d be better than him, actually. I actually think that.”
Republican 2024 presidential front-runner Donald Trump claimed on Friday that Vice President Kamala Harris would make a better president than her boss, Joe Biden, stating that no one could be worse than the man currently in the role.https://t.co/VMHHR6xRVy
— Conservative News Daily (@ConservNewsDly) December 23, 2023
This interview was not the first in which Trump theorized about the path Democrats might take in finding a last-minute replacement for Biden.
In August, he told former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson that he could envision “some kind of a primary” in which “other people will get involved” in the race, possibly including California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
While Newsom has been actively building his national political brand in recent months, he has denied harboring any intention of throwing his hat in the 2024 presidential ring.
