A history professor with a near-perfect record of predicting presidential elections dismissed talk of Joe Biden dropping out of the race after his disastrous debate performance on Thursday.
Allan Lichtman — an American University professor who helped create a “keys to the White House” model of predicting presidential races — spoke with CNN’s Abby Phillip in an interview where he shut down talk from “pundits,” “pollsters and analysts” who he said have no track record of predicting elections.
“And yet they come on and they claim they know how this debate is going to affect the outcome of elections. They have no idea,” Lichtman told Phillip on Friday.
The remarks on Biden, whose family members reportedly called on him to continue his push for a second term this weekend, arrive amid a fallout for the president among Democrats.
Lichtman, who has accurately called nine of the last 10 presidential elections, later declared that the debate will leave “zero” impact on the presidential race.
“Debates are not predictive of outcomes,” said the professor, who pointed to debate performances by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and former President Barack Obama.
He continued, “That’s why we rely on the 13 keys which tap into the structure of how elections really work. And they show the Democrats with the only chance to win, contrary to everything you’ve heard, is with Biden running.”
Phillip later flagged a “problem” with Democrats considering a Biden replacement due to uncertainty around him physically carrying out the rest of his campaign.
Lichtman brushed the talk aside and noted that questions over Biden’s physical capabilities are not coming from doctors.
“So this is all foolhardy nonsense. The same pundits and pollsters who led us down the primrose path in 2016 are giving the Democrats horrible advice,” he said.
He continued, “Republicans are sticking with a blatant liar who lied for every one minute and 20 seconds of that debate. Donald Trump put out a lie. And by the way, lies stick. Debate performances can be overcome. And now the first sign of, you know, adversity, the spineless Democrats want to throw under the bus their own incumbent president. My goodness.”