American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp predicted bad news for the Democratic Party going into the 2022 midterm elections.
Schlapp joined former Priorities USA political director Kristal Knight and guest host Martha MacCallum for Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Faulkner Focus” on Fox News, and the three responded to reports the President Joe Biden has indicated he plans to run for reelection in 2024.
MacCallum began by noting that some appeared to be skeptical of a second Biden run — in part because of poll numbers that have continued to decline and in part because, as the oldest president on record, Biden would be 82 by the time his re-election campaign even began.
MacCallum then went to a tape of fellow Fox News host Dana Perino, who summed up the situation on an earlier broadcast.
“Why would they try to reassure people he would run again? Because if they did not say that, immediately he is a lame duck. Immediately. And we’re three years from a primary,” Perino explained. “I think they have to say he is running because the alternative to them right now is really, really bad. You don’t want to be a lame duck.”
“Is that the reason, Kristal?” MacCallum turned the question to Knight. “You are so early into this term you don’t want to be telling people he has already decided he is not going to run.”
“Absolutely. It is a little unusual that we are talking about 2024 and it is still 2021,” Knight replied. “We should expect every incumbent president to run for reelection. He has gotten the Build Back Better plan through Congress headed to the Senate and we don’t know what the 2022 mid-term elections look like. If the Democrats are strong we should expect the president to run stronger in 2024.”
Before turning to Schlapp, MacCallum noted that a number of Democrats — some with plum positions on key committees — had either announced their retirement or said that they were not planning to seek reelection in the 2022 midterm elections. That same trend, she pointed out, was seen among Republicans in the months leading up to Democrats winning back control of Congress.
“What do you read into that?” she asked Schlapp.
“Everyone in this town knows the Democrats won’t have the majority in the House of Representatives after next year’s elections. That’s a pretty foregone conclusion,” Schlapp replied, saying that even prior to 2022 the Democratic Party’s hold on the House was slim.
“Here is the thing that’s amazing. Joe Biden’s numbers are terrible. Most of these polls — they tend to grade on the curve for the Democrat — his numbers are historic lows,” Schlapp continued, adding that Democrats had already seen a wave of losses in places like Virginia, Seattle, Minneapolis. “It was defeat of CRT, defeat of defund the cops … All over from sea to sea the Democrats with this socialism and extremism were rejected. I have never seen a national political party self-destruct so quickly.”
“It will be interesting to see if they try to turn the ship a little bit towards a more moderate take in order to maintain and hang on to some of those seats in places where they are likely to lose them,” MacCallum agreed.