Pollster Nate Silver, the founder of ABC’s FiveThirtyEight, called for President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 White House race after making “incoherent comments” in his first postdebate interview Friday.
Earlier Friday, Silver wrote a column about whether a model could appropriately determine Biden’s chances of winning the election, as voters remain skeptical of his abilities more than a week after his poor debate performance.
Silver, who viewed Biden's interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos before it was aired publicly Friday evening, posted to social platform X with a change of tune.
“This is a pretty incoherent answer including a non-sequitur [complaining] about a New York Times poll, which he incorrectly claims had him down 10 points before the debate,” Silver wrote on X, sharing a clip of the interview. He added that The New York Times survey only had Biden down 3 or 4 points.
“I wimped out in today’s column and deleted a line saying he should formulate a plan to transition the presidency to [Vice President] Harris within 30-60 days, but I’m there now,” Silver said. “Something is clearly wrong here.”
He joins a growing list of people calling on the president to preserve his legacy by stepping aside and allowing someone new to take on former President Trump this November.
“The most generous way to put it is that he doesn’t seem in command, and that’s an extremely hard sell when you’re Commander in Chief,” Silver said.
The pollster shared a statistic that said 57 percent of people believe Biden will drop out. He said he thinks that number is low, and Democrats will apply “incredible amounts of pressure.”
After his poor debate showing, Biden and his team have been adamant that he is in it to win it. He’s hosted rallies, spoken with Democratic governors and other lawmakers and sat down with Stephanopoulos in an attempt to bolster support.
The ABC interview was seen as a make-or-break moment for Biden as he tries to salvage his campaign and regain support among his base.
During the interview, Biden refused to take a cognitive test. Silver said that this decision was "disqualifying on its own."
Less than a week ago, the pollster predicted Biden's polls would get worse following the debate debacle.
The incumbent pushed back on Stephanopoulos's remarks that his approval rating was below 36 percent. Silver said the polls were the least of Biden's worries at this point.
"At this point it's only like their 4th most important problem," he wrote Friday evening on X, adding, "but the fact that the White House has drunk the Kool-Aid on the poll denialism stuff all cycle long isn't helping matters."
