Democrats with deep knowledge of the Biden campaign acknowledged former President Donald Trump’s significant chances of completing the greatest political comeback in American history.
Democrats are right to be concerned. In March, Trump beat the odds and won five victories that firmly kept him on a path to reclaim the White House:
Clinched Republican presidential primary
Received a reduced bond amount, from $454 million to $175 million
Completed a Truth Social merger and launched a public offering
Won a ruling by Judge McAfee to appeal an order denying the disqualification of Fani Willis
Endorsed Ohio candidate Bernie Moreno, who then won the Ohio Republican Senate primary
Democrat fundraiser John Morgan said his party is “prepared to lose” the presidential election to Trump. Morgan, a very successful lawyer from Central Florida, added he is nervous about President Joe Biden’s current political position.
“As my great-grandfather used to say, ‘I’m as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.’ Yes, hell yes,” Morgan told the Washington Post. “We all know this is a jump ball,” he said. “In 2016, we were reading Nate Silver, and we weren’t worried at all. When we woke up, we realized we’ve never been to Wisconsin and we’ve never been to Michigan and then all the Monday-morning quarterbacks are out.”
Morgan is not the only Democrat bracing for Trump’s potential victory. Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, said losing in November would range somewhere between damaging and devastating.
“For me, it’s like, either damage or devastation,” she told the Washington Post. “Those are the two that I kind of go back and forth on. I think it would be devastating for our communities. And I think it would be damaging for our politics and for the policies that we have enacted.”
The Post’s Jesús Rodríguez questioned if Chavez Rodriguez has the tools to prevent Trump’s return to the White House. “What if Biden’s campaign manager can’t manage to keep it at bay?” he asked.
“That won’t be the case for Julie,” Morgan defended Biden’s campaign manager. “Because we all are prepared to lose. … No matter what, I don’t think people are going to blame Julie like people blame Robby Mook for Hillary. Because Hillary was supposed to win this.”
Former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign manager, James Carville, is also worried about Trump’s strong position. In six of the seven top swing states, Trump leads Biden, reversing Biden’s 2020 success in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona, a Wall Street Journal poll found Tuesday. Trump also holds sizable leads over Biden in six out of eight issues polled by the Journal.In addition, Biden’s average approval rating of about 40 percent is well below the historic threshold of 50 percent for the incumbent to win reelection.
“You have to be an idiot not to be nervous,” Carville said. “It’s uncomfortably close, and the alternative would be to end the Constitution.”
Despite Trump’s momentum, neither Biden nor the administrative state will back down. The Biden campaign maintains a strong cash advantage over Trump, and many allies in the media remain willing to spin narratives against Trump, who faces ongoing and costly legal battles.
Biden’s campaign ended February with $155 million on hand. It has not released its fundraising numbers for March, though it claimed to raise $25 million during a controversial high-dollar fundraising event with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. In contrast, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee raised a joint $65.6 million in March, which brings their cash on hand to $93.1 million, the organizations announced Wednesday.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.