White House: Take 2024 polls ‘with a grain of salt’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre argued Tuesday the latest set of polls that show President Biden trailing former President Trump in a hypothetical 2024 rematch should be treated with skepticism, pointing to recent examples of surveys failing to predict what would actually happen at the ballot box.

“We have to really take these polls with a grain of salt,” Jean-Pierre said at a briefing with reporters. “We should really be very mindful here and one of the reasons why is just a year ago, back in 2022 there was the red wave that never materialized.”

Jean-Pierre cited the “multiple stories” that indicated Republicans would make sweeping gains in Congress in the 2022 midterms. Democrats ultimately performed better than expected, growing their Senate majority by one seat and staving off widespread losses in the House even as Republicans won the majority.

She also pointed to 2011, when polls showed then-President Obama trailing then-GOP nominee Mitt Romney in a potential 2012 match-up. Obama went on to defeat Romney in the general election to win a second term.

“So look, our focus obviously is going to be doing what the president was elected to do, which is focusing on delivering for the American people,” Jean-Pierre said. “There’s going to be a lot of polls out there. Now until the next couple of months there’s going to be a lot of — dozens and dozens of polls.”

Jean-Pierre said officials at the White House have seen the polls from over the weekend, which painted a troubling picture for Biden one year out from the 2024 election day.

A New York Times/Siena College poll found Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, leading Biden in five out of six critical battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 race. The poll also found Biden losing support among young voters and Black voters, two key demographics that helped propel him to the White House in 2020.

A CBS News poll released Sunday also found Trump leading Biden in a hypothetical matchup, 51 percent to 48 percent.