Trump tells Fox News host he can’t believe 'a woman' is 'somehow doing better' than Biden

19 Sep 2024, 15:33 by https://www.facebook.com/17108852506 · AlterNet

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Carl Gibson
September 19, 2024Election 2024

Former President Donald Trump appeared in-person on a primetime Fox News show to complain about Vice President Kamala Harris beating him in the latest polls.

During his interview with Fox host Greg Gutfeld on his self-titled late night show, the 45th president of the United States lamented that President Joe Biden was suddenly replaced at the top of the ticket late in the 2024 campaign cycle. And as the Daily Beast reported, Trump was not only astonished that he was trailing his Democratic opponent, but that he was losing the race to "a woman."

"[Biden] was pretty much gone," Trump said. "They said, 'Joe, it's over, you're getting out.' And they were very nasty."

"And they put her in,” he continued. “And she somehow—a woman—somehow she’s doing better than he did.” The Beast's Sean Craig noted that the ex-president emphasized the words “a woman” by "sitting up straight and putting both hands in front of him, lightly cupping the air."

Trump's candid reflection on the state of the race with less than 50 days to go before voters cast their ballots comes as a new Fox News national poll released this week has Harris up by two points. That poll reflects a three-point swing for the vice president compared to last month's poll, notably after the ABC News presidential debate that prompted Trump to say he wouldn't participate in any more debates.

FiveThirtyEight's aggregation of polls shows that Harris has consistently been polling within the margin of error or slightly ahead of Trump since late July, when she entered the race and galvanized Democratic voters and donors alike. The ex-president has trailed Harris in all polls with the exception of a small handful since the Democratic National Convention in August, when the vice president officially accepted her spot at the top of the ticket.

Aside from national polls, Harris is also leading the former president in swing states. WGAL reported that the most recent Franklin and Marshall College poll showed Harris in front of Trump by three points in the must-win battleground state of Pennsylvania. Even in North Carolina — which hasn't voted for a Democratic candidate since former President Barack Obama in 2008 — Harris is leading Trump by one point according to an Emerson College poll conducted between September 15-18.

Harris' strong polling performance shows just how rapidly Trump's fortune has shifted since Biden exited the race on July 21. Northwestern University data scientist Thomas Miller — who correctly predicted the 2020 electoral map save for Georgia – told Fortune earlier this week that his prediction model showed Trump winning easily against Biden and taking more than 400 Electoral College votes.

But following Biden's exit, Harris' record fundraising hauls and pop singer Taylor Swift's endorsement, Miller is now forecasting a "landslide" win for Harris in November. Miller believes Harris is poised to win all seven contested battleground states — which include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and having an electoral map similar to former President Bill Clinton in 1996, when he defeated Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kansas) with more than 300 electoral votes.

Click here to read the Beast's full report (subscription required).