President Joe Biden has faced small but persistent opposition in Democratic primaries so far, with about one in 10 Democratic voters choosing "uncommitted" in states where that's an option, but MSNBC's Claire McCaskill tried to soothe concerns about his strength heading into the general election.
The average Biden protest vote, whether voters are choosing "uncommitted" or picking long-shot candidates, has been about 13 percent so far, but the former Missouri senator told "Morning Joe" that incumbent presidents often face opposition from fatigued voters in primaries who turn out for them in November.
"I'm not worried about this," McCaskill said. "Everyone knows in Kansas that Joe Biden is the nominee. There was nothing to be decided in the Democratic primary in Kansas, that's not a motivating factor. They didn't have a choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and let's just put a little bit of context on these numbers against Joe Biden. Barack Obama had more people voting against him in the primaries in 2012 than Joe Biden has had against him. It really is – I mean, this is part of being an incumbent, is there's always going to be a certain number of people that are going to say, 'No, I want somebody different, I want somebody new.'"
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"His numbers have been stronger than Donald Trump's in every primary state that has voted," McCaskill added. "Remember, primary voters are much different than general election voters, and when it comes to those votes that are going to decide this election, that's where Joe Biden has to do the contrast of his record versus Trump, more importantly, his normalcy versus looney tunes."
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