WASHINGTON — In recent weeks, President Joe Biden has privately expressed confidence in his ability to win the November election, according to three people familiar with his comments, marking a shift from the frustration over the state of his campaign that he expressed to aides he just a few months ago.
The turnaround in Biden’s mood is partly due to a recent poll that shows him gaining ground against the former president. Donald Trump, these people said. But, they added, he was also buoyed by more frequent travel to conflicting states and an apparent coalition around his candidacy from some Democrats who had not yet embraced him.
The president has been particularly encouraged by the specific indicators his campaign advisers now regularly provide him with: the growing number of open campaign offices and hired staff, as well as efforts to expand the reach of low-level campaign fundraising. cost. program, a Biden campaign official said.
“He just thinks he’s going to win,” said one of the people familiar with Biden’s private comments.
Biden doesn’t necessarily point to anything specific as to why he thinks he’ll win; instead, he sometimes told those close to him that he felt it, according to two of the people familiar with his comments.
The Biden campaign declined to comment for this article.
The president’s positive outlook on his re-election prospects represents a significant reversal from his outlook over the past year since he launched his campaign. For months, the president has frustrations expressed privately, which sometimes turned into anger and outbursts against staff, because of their lower standing with voters. Indeed, complaints that Americans don’t give him the credit he believes he deserves for what he sees as his accomplishments, including an economy moving in a positive direction and bipartisan infrastructure legislation, have been recurring throughout much of Biden’s time in the White House.
Meanwhile, Trump has faced a difficult few weeks, with his stance on abortion – that it should be left to the states – receiving pushback from his Republican base. Trump is now in a Manhattan criminal courtroom mixing in unflattering courtroom skits and scandalous headlines about allegations he paid off a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Yet in what is expected to be a tumultuous campaign, where global and economic events could change again and again, Biden’s optimistic outlook could be short-lived.
Biden has little control over some key factors shaping the current political environment. Inflation is still high and remains a major concern for some key voters Biden needs to win over. Security at the U.S. southern border remains a top – and unresolved – concern for many voters. Several polls have shown that voters trust Trump more on the border.
Additionally, opposition to Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which Biden supported, continues…
