CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash agreed Tuesday that a fresh exit poll was “brutal” for Kamala Harris.
The network’s poll showed that voters in key swing states—Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin—strongly disapproved of Joe Biden’s performance as president.
His approval rating in the three battlegrounds was just 43, 42, and 38 percent, respectively.
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“This would have been a very different race if Joe Biden had stayed in it,” Tapper joked in response to the results. “If it ends with a Trump victory—and we have no idea how it’s going to end, so don’t misinterpret what I’m saying—but there’s going to be a lot of finger-pointing and recriminations, and wondering and wondering.”
“But these approval ratings for Joe Biden are brutal,” he added.
Bash was in agreement.
“Six in ten, in Wisconsin, say that they don’t approve of the president, I mean, it is brutal,” she said. “And there’s no other way to look at it. That is, no question, a big headwind for Kamala Harris despite the fact that she has tried to separate herself.”
Bash suggested that Harris’ team was assuredly hoping that Biden’s abysmal approval percentages don’t “bleed into” the vice president’s election results.
Harris had reportedly sought to distance herself from President Biden—and his poor approval ratings and penchant for gaffes—in the days leading up to the election.
Earlier in the night, CNN anchor Chris Wallace said that another exit poll, one of the network’s first of the night, boded poorly for Harris, even though his co-hosts were more skeptical. Based on the numbers, though, which similarly showed dissatisfaction and anger with Biden’s performance, Wallace suggested it would be a “miracle” if Harris could separate herself enough to earn a victory.
The neck-and-neck race continues to hang in the balance, as key swing states have yet to be called one way or the other.
