Abrams says Biden has ‘over-performed expectation’ and blames ‘harder’ times on ‘global issues’

Former Georgia state lawmaker and twice-failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams tiptoed around her assessment of President Joe Biden’s performance, saying he has “over-performed expectation” but cautioned that voters may disagree because “people’s lives are harder.”

“I think President Joe Biden has been an exceptional president,” Abrams told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki. “On a range of issues, he has over-performed expectation. He has navigated incredibly difficult circumstances, and he has shown that he is willing to stand with the people of Georgia, with the people of this country, to move the nation forward.”

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Abrams sat down for an interview with Psaki that will air in its entirety this Sunday on Inside with Jen Psaki. The MSNBC host shared a preview of their conversation on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday night.

“We have to remember what we face if we want to continue to hold on to the progress we’ve had, but we can’t ignore the fact that people’s lives are harder,” Abrams said, quickly coming to Biden’s defense.

“This is not because of the president,” she noted. “It is because of global issues and international challenges, and market conditions and a whole host of things that don’t matter to you when you’re sitting at your kitchen table.”

Abrams suggested that the Democratic Party must focus on connecting with voters’ feelings in order to ensure a second term for Biden.

“For elected officials and those of us who want to see people show up and vote and participate and reelect Joe Biden, we have to meet people where they are,” she said. “They have baked in the successes they’ve seen. They need to know what’s next.”

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“I think President Biden is doing a good job of laying out what that can look like and painting that picture,” Abrams added. “But we have to remember that people remember what they feel when they walk into a voting booth, and that means we’ve got to ensure that what they feel is hope, what they feel is progress, and what they feel is that their votes matter.”

Abrams’s comments come as a new Quinnipiac University national poll released Wednesday showed 63% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters saying they would be willing to consider another candidate depending on the events leading up to the primary.