Kellyanne Conway believes Democrats may regret pressuring Joe Biden to pull out of the 2024 election as she forecast a “narrow landslide” victory for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris.
President Biden announced his withdrawal from the race on July 21, amid growing calls to do so from senior Democrats following his poor debate performance on June 27. However, given the closely contested state of the race, the Trump surrogate believes the vice president might concede a battle her predecessor could have won.
“He’s the guy who beat Trump, so he could have again,” Kellyanne Conway told Fox News on Monday morning.
Conway, who was former President Trump’s 2016 campaign manager before becoming his senior counselor in the White House, said that the Democratic Party, which threw its support behind Harris following Biden’s exit, had little faith in her ability to beat the former president from the beginning.
“I really think there were Democrats like [California Governor] Gavin Newsom, [Michigan Governor] Gretchen Whitmer and others who thought she can’t beat Trump, so let’s just make her the sacrificial lamb, put somebody else on her ticket and wait till 2028,” Conway said.
Newsweek reached out to Newsom and Whitmer’s offices for comment.
Conway also criticized the Democrats’ treatment of Biden before and after his withdrawal.
“They unceremoniously drummed [Biden] off the stage, kicked him out of an industry where he had worked at the top levels for over fifty years, without even giving him a lifetime achievement award,” she said.
Conway now believes that Harris risks jeopardizing the incumbent president’s legacy if she fails to secure a victory in November, adding: “If she doesn’t win, people are going to look back and say ‘told you so.'”
Now firmly in the homestretch of this year’s election, Conway said that Trump replaying his 2016 playbook—with a focus on North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and now Georgia—would likely hand him a “narrow landslide” in the Electoral College.
“If he can get the extra 8,000, 10,000, 12,000 in these states, he runs the tables—he gets five or six swing states,” she said, adding that even a victory in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania would mean “it’s over” for Harris.
According to the latest polling aggregates from 538, Harris currently leads Trump in Pennsylvania (+0.7), Michigan (+0.8), Wisconsin (+0.6), and Nevada (+0.6), another critical swing state.
However, the Republican is ahead in Georgia (+1.0) and North Carolina (+0.9) and holds a healthy 1.8-point lead in Arizona.
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