At the center of the case for Joe Biden’s candidacy is the idea that he’s the guy who can beat President Trump. But in a new interview, Biden said in actuality, “almost anybody” can beat the incumbent.
Biden made the remarks in a podcast with the Washington Post, in which host Jonathan Capehart told an anecdote about how his Aunt Gloria liked Sen. Kamala Harris, but was supporting Biden because she thinks “It’s gonna take an old white person to beat an old white person.”
The former vice president responded, “I hope she’s wrong. I don’t think that’s the case.” After an extended answer about the need to elect somebody who understands the African American community, Biden said, “I think there’s other people in the race who can beat Trump.”
When Capehart asked Biden who he had in mind, Biden responded, “Well, I think almost anybody.”
This is a bit of an odd answer for Biden, who has made the idea of electability a central part of his candidacy. To the extent that people think that virtually any other candidate can beat Trump, there’s less of a reason to take a risk on somebody who would be the oldest president in American history, entering his 80s during a first term.
This could be another Biden gaffe, or it could be part of a deliberate shift in Biden to other arguments for his candidacy given the limitations of the electability argument. As I noted on Wednesday, a Quinnipiac poll found all Democrats surveyed beating Trump comfortably in hypothetical general election matchups.
