 So I don't know how many people agreed with this sentiment, but I was kind of under the impression that even if Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020, I don't know that he'd be able to beat him again in 2024, because Joe Biden, I mean, he's not doing much. He has a pretty low approval rating. And I think that Joe Biden was primarily able to defeat Donald Trump because of Donald Trump's catastrophic response to COVID-19. So, you know, I've always kind of had this assumption in the back of my mind that in the event the election were held again, Trump would probably prevail. Now, let's look at Joe Biden's approval ratings here. So this is from 538. So his overall approval rating on average is 41.7 percent, and his disapproval rating sits at 53.3 percent, which is bad. A majority of the country disapproves of Joe Biden. Now, some polls even have his approval rating in the high 30s, although these do appear to be outliers. But the reason why I'm showing you this is because despite his bad approval rating, he would still beat Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis if the election were held today. This hypothetical matchup that we're about to read is truly shocking to me, not expected at all. But still, I mean, 2024 is ways away, a lot can change. But just for now, the temperature check of the electorate that we see here, it actually had me pretty surprised. I'm not going to lie. So Michael Schnell of The Hill Explains, President Biden is leading former President Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in two hypothetical head-to-head matchups for the 2024 presidential election, according to a new poll. The survey conducted by Marquette Law School found that 43 percent of adults nationwide would support Biden if the 2024 presidential election were held today, while 33 percent would vote for Trump in a one-on-one matchup. 16 percent said they would choose a different candidate, while 6 percent said they would not vote. In a hypothetical race against DeSantis, however, Biden polls slightly worse. 41 percent of adults nationwide said they would throw their support behind Biden, while 33 percent would support DeSantis. 18 percent of respondents said they would vote for a different candidate, and 8 percent said they would not cast a ballot. Only 29 percent of those polled said they want to see Trump run for president again in 2024, while 71 percent said they did not want to see him seek a second term. So in other words, as unpopular as Joe Biden is, voters would still opt for him over a second Trump term. This is very surprising to me. Wouldn't expect this, and I'll kind of talk through reasons why I think the electorate is still turned off to Donald Trump in a moment here, but I do want to look at a different poll. This is from Politico and the Morning Consult. The results aren't as favorable to Joe Biden as the last poll that we just looked at from Marquette Law School, but it still yields some additional insight into the phenomenon that I think is happening here. So looking at this poll, Biden would still be at Pence, DeSantis, and Cruz, and he would still beat Donald Trump, but much more narrowly, by only one point. Now the reason why this is so fascinating is because 46 percent of voters would back a generic Republican over Biden, 46 percent to 37 percent. So the problem very obviously seems to be Donald Trump and any politicians who are aligned with Donald Trump or Trumpian in nature. Now again, this can change because it's still early. Perhaps by 2023, 2024 Americans kind of forget about Donald Trump if he goes away, which is unlikely because it's Donald Trump and he wants attention, but Donald Trump and the Trump figures are toxic still. That's shocking to me. That's pretty surprising. Look, they, I think, make up a majority of the Republican Party. I think that a lot of Republicans elected GOP officials probably don't agree with Donald Trump, but they just kind of say what they feel as if they need to say to appease the base. But still, I mean, when you look at polls, the GOP base, one poll that just came out, I can't remember who conducted it, Trump was sitting at 57 percent as of right now when it comes to the upcoming GOP primary, and DeSantis and Pence tied in second place at 11 percent. So Trump is still very much the face and the leader of the modern day Republican Party. That's why a lot of elected GOP officials have to pay fealty to him. But still, to the overall broader electorate, he is toxic and anyone associated with him who tried to emulate his style is also toxic. So toxic that they'd opt for Joe Biden again, even if they don't like Joe Biden, because more voters, at least according to this poll by the Morning Consult and Politico, they'd prefer a generic Republican. They'll take a Republican over Biden, but not if it's a Trumpian Republican, and it's close still, right? I mean, one point ahead of Trump that's within the margin of error. But still, Trump and his brand are very toxic. I think that the main reason why voters are still turned off to Donald Trump is because of the big lie. Look, Americans, by and large, believe in democracy. Maybe they've lost faith in democracy. Maybe they don't think that our democracy is perfect and perhaps we have to keep expanding democracy, consolidating democracy, expanding suffrage. But most of us support democracy and most Americans are astute enough to recognize that Donald Trump's big lie absolutely hurts democracy. I think that that's obvious. So in the event Trump reversed course and he just stopped talking about the big lie, maybe if he even did a 180 and said, okay, I found evidence to the contrary, I was wrong. If he just was a little bit more humble for once, I don't know if that would reverse this trend. Again, this trend might just reverse by itself because we're so far out from the 2024 election. But this is really interesting to me. I mean, the big lie hurt Donald Trump, it hurt democracy, but it also hurt Donald Trump. And he just, he can't let it go. His ego won't allow him to acknowledge that he lost fair and square to sleepy Joe Biden. Sorry, bud, you were just that fucking bad. You handled COVID-19 in a terrible way. And look, Biden is handling COVID-19 horribly now. He is. He's doing basically nothing. He's letting it wash over the country as Donald Trump did. So people are fed up with Joe Biden rightfully so, but they're still not willing to opt for Trump over Joe Biden. Again, they still don't want to go back to the Trump era and all of the instability that that brought into our political system. That's not like everything is peachy keen with Joe Biden, but Trump was just so bombastic, so aggressive, so unnecessarily vitriolic that Americans are still just not wanting to go back to that. Again, this might change between now and 2024, but the GOP primary is going to be interesting because you are maybe going to see a kind of civil war in the GOP. I think that it's already happening and I think that Trump has already won that civil war, but you're going to see members kind of make a case against Donald Trump's electability if nothing changes. Somebody is going to try to be the anti-Trump, but I mean, that's going to be tough because if you're the anti-Trump voters don't like you. The GOP base wants Donald Trump, but that is in conflict with the broader American population. So really interesting, surprising, didn't expect Joe Biden to have even a chance given how bad he's doing and how bad his approval rating is, but apparently he's not doing bad enough for Americans to just want Trump back. This is all fascinating to me. So again, really early, so take all of these polling that we get about 2024 with a grain of salt, but still really interesting to think about here. Americans still don't like Donald Trump, and for good reason.