Behold the latest installment of media types fretting over the current course of the presidential election. In this instance, Politico Senior Political Columnist Jonathan Martin lamenting that the current trajectory of the election, a referendum on President Joe Biden, augurs the reelection of former President Donald Trump on this week’s installment of ABC This Week.
Watch as J-Mart and host Jon Karl discuss the election’s current trajectory, as aired on ABC This Week on Sunday, April 21st, 2024:
REINCE PREIBUS: In 2016, it was 24/7 lousy press, good press, everything in between, Donald Trump. If you look at the press, 90% of it’s about Trump, and he — he went through the last three weeks with five rallies a day, and turned out one of the biggest upsets in modern history. When it’s all about Trump, he’s winning.
JONATHAN MARTIN: Yes. So I disagree with that.
JON KARL: FiveThirtyEight average has shown a bit of a movement towards Biden.
MARTIN: I think the opposite is true. I think if the election is about Biden…
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: …Trump’s gonna win. I think if the election’s about Trump, Biden’s got a lot better chance. And right now Biden’s problem is: this election is about Joe Biden.
KARL: Yeah…
MARTIN: I mean, that’s the challenge, right?
KARL: Those are the kind of numbers that make Biden very nervous. So…
MARTIN: And Michigan…
KARL: …so, how does The White House feel…
MARTIN: And Michigan’s the most ominous number there.
Former RNC Chair Reince Priebus begins this segment by schooling the panel as to the effects of trying to drown Trump in free press, as was the case in 2016 when the media gave him over $5 billion in free media. And there are certainly many parallels with 2016 at play in the current cycle. This time, the endless Trump cycle centers around the various prosecutions against him in state and federal courts. But the polling that This Week’s panel was looking at seems to indicate that the negative coverage is not working out.
And this is where Jonathan Martin comes in and very plainly argues the case for the media to make the election about Donald Trump. The media NEED the election to be about Trump, otherwise Biden becomes the purest victim of his calamitous record.
But polling shows that the public’s attention is fixed on other things such as the economy, inflation, and immigration- issues where Trump has consistently outperformed Biden. Polling further suggests that the media’s J6 fixations have very little resonance beyond the elite Acela bubble.
Indeed, as Jonathan Martin notes, “Biden’s problem is: this election is about Joe Biden.” Part of the story of the upcoming days is going to be centered around the media’s efforts to make the opposite come true. Just as in 2016.