Critics and supporters of President Joe Biden have been united recently on the subject of the 2024 election, specifically on the idea that things look very bad for the incumbent POTUS. But MSNBC’s Chris Hayes disagreed with that kind of talk on Tuesday’s episode of “All In,” arguing that given many of Biden’s recent successes and some positive socio-economic trends, Biden “has a much stronger political narrative” going into the election.
Hayes began the segment by talking about the news over the weekend that the Biden administration and congressional Republicans have tentatively reached a deal to raise the debt ceiling. Hayes noted how the deal — which is, essentially, very far from the total destruction of Biden’s priorities demanded by the GOP’s most conservative members — appears to embody one of the selling points of Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.
“Candidate Biden promised a return to ‘normalcy’ after the in-your-face, torturously attention-seeking presidency of Donald Trump,” Hayes said, adding that “another pillar” of Biden’s campaign was “a pledge to return the country to a bygone era of bipartisan deal-making.”
Hayes then ran through a ton of what he sees as examples of both in action throughout Biden’s presidency. He noted that the biggest bills of the era were passed along party lines, but that the “larger record” shows that “the president has quietly, or not-so-quietly racked up quite a few bipartisan accomplishments.”
Among them, he noted bills like the one protecting equal marriage rights, and the gun safety law passed in 2022. These were “far from perfect,” Hayes said, “but they’re still tangible legislative accomplishments” that “all fall in the zone of ‘normal politics,’ in a way that, say, storming the capitol doesn’t.”
Hayes noted Biden’s age may be an issue, but that most of the problems Biden has had to deal with stem from the chaotic situation America was in when he took office, due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic. And on that front, Hayes argued, particularly on the issues of crime and the economy, there has been “actual, meaningful” improvement.
“If you take a step back and look at the numbers in the aggregate, the levels of violence in America are definitely moving in the right direction. They’re not going to talk about this on Fox News, but it’s true,” he said.
“Ultimately, Joe Biden’s election pitch is going to be a story about a country recovering from an almost unthinkable set of unprecedented disruptions. From a once-in-a-century pandemic, to Donald Trump’s attempted coup. And to the extent that a ‘return to normalcy’ was the promise of his 2020 victory, I think, if these trends continue, President Biden has a much stronger political narrative in 2024.”
Watch the clip above now.
