Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) on Sunday said voters in both parties are running away from their current and former party leaders, current President Biden and former President Trump.
“Democrats don’t want Biden or [Vice President] Harris either, and Republicans frankly don’t want Trump. And they’re the ones trying to consume the TV time,” McCrory said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” during a panel discussion.
The former governor and Senate candidate highlighted comments earlier this week from former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that Trump’s “unelectability will be palpable” by the 2024 presidential election.
“There are about 20 Republican candidates for the presidency that are running right now who really believe this too, and they can’t say it, because they don’t want to upset the core 30 percent who are with Trump regardless,” McCrory said.
“And, by the way, the Democrats are running away from Biden in this election too. They do not want — the Democrats don’t want Biden on the stage,” he said.
McCrory’s comments are in line with a number of recent polls showing that Trump’s and Biden’s party bases aren’t enthusiastic about a reelection bid from either potential candidate.
Democrats’ support for a Biden reelection bid appeared to climb in some polls as his approval ratings recovered from record lows, while Republicans support for Trump has appeared to dip in some results.
Polls testing a hypothetical match-up between the two candidates have revealed a close race.
Biden has expressed his intent to run and recently declared his confidence that he could beat Trump again. Trump hasn’t formally declared a reelection bid, though he teases it often. Recent polling shows the former president as the favorite in a hypothetical GOP primary.