2024 election: Is being an alternative to Trump enough for Biden to win a second time?

With a general election rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump all but official, some Democrats worry that simply being an alternative to Trump might not be enough for Biden to win this time around. Yahoo News Chief National Correspondent Jon Ward explains how the anti-Trump playbook’s record has fared in past elections and what makes the 2024 election different.

Video Transcript

JON WARD: The really atomic question for Democrats is whether they can win again with Biden by convincing the American public that Trump is as much of a threat to democracy as they say he is.

JOE BIDEN: Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today.

JON WARD: Alongside the fact that there's gonna continue to be at least chatter about whether or not Democrats should go with another candidate at the convention. Anti-Trump sentiment has been really rocket fuel for Democrats going all the way back to 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022. All of these elections Democrats did really well and at times way better than they expected to because so many American voters were turned off by or alarmed by Donald Trump. And that's gonna be the playbook again. The question is, how much does Biden's age work against that?

Another element here is Trump's runningmate that he'll pick in the coming weeks or months. He's definitely going to be looking to pick somebody who can help shave off the rough edges, to try to win back some of those voters that left him in those elections. And Democrats have some work to do with Vice President Kamala Harris. One thing they could maybe do to reassure voters is try to boost her image, try to make her less of a drag on the ticket. That's something they can do on the margins as well.

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