Ezra Klein, Nate Silver knock Biden for ‘elites’ quip after new AP poll

Some prominent media figures are pointing to a new dismal poll for President Biden as evidence that calls for him to step aside atop the Democratic ticket reflect the broader sentiment among voters, rather than from “elites” in the party, as Biden has contended.

In the AP-NORC poll released Wednesday, 65 percent of Democrats say Biden should “withdraw and allow his party to select a different candidate,” while only 35 percent say Biden should continue running for president.

“So many elites!” New York Times columnist and podcaster Ezra Klein said on the social platform X, responding to the new polling data.

“Another lie is that it’s only ‘elites’ who think Biden should be replaced,” pollster Nate Silver wrote on X about the Democratic Party’s messaging. “Actually, even a majority of Democrats think that in most polls.”

The reference to party “elites” comes amid fallout from Biden’s disastrous debate performance late last month that sparked calls from within his party for the presumptive nominee to step aside.

Biden has remained defiant, however, and has repeatedly said he would stay in the race.

In the days following the debate, a through line emerged in his team’s messaging that knocked party “elites” for calling on him to withdraw from the race. He and his team have said his voters are with him and that he would not cave to public pressure.

“I’m getting frustrated by the elites in the party, ‘Oh, they know so much more,’” Biden said in an interview on MSNBC early last week. “Any of these guys that don’t think I should run, run against me. Announce for president, challenge me at the convention.”

Biden echoed a similar sentiment during his first postdebate interview on ABC News.

“I’m not going to care what those big names think,” Biden said. “Come out with me and watch people react. You make a judgment.”

Klein, in a subsequent post on Wednesday, said Democrats should have taken note of Biden’s poor polling in February when Democratic respondents were asked about their level of confidence in Biden’s capability to serve effectively as president: 40 percent said they were “extremely/very confident,” 27 percent said they were “somewhat confident” and 32 percent said they were “not very/not at all confident.”

In the July poll, 27 percent of Democrats say they are “extremely/very confident,” 25 percent say they are “somewhat confident” while 48 percent now say they are “not very/not at all confident.”

“The July number is bad but it’s the February number that should’ve shocked Democrats,” Klein wrote. “Voters have been saying this all along. Democratic, yes, elites have been the ones not listening.”