Karl Rove Declares a Trump-Biden Rematch Would Be The ‘Worst Dumpster Fire of a Campaign in History’

Karl Rove lit into a potential 2024 presidential rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday night and warned the U.S. hurling toward the “worst dumpster fire of a campaign in history.”

Rove, a former Bush White House official and current Fox News contributor, pulled no punches in urging both the Republican and Democratic parties to dump both Trump and Biden.

Rove began by recapping Tuesday night election defeats for Republicans and quickly moved on to Biden, who has received a bevy of bad polling data in recent days.

“Team Biden’s response was predictable and anemic. Campaign manager Julia Chavez Rodriguez emailed supporters to say polls a year before the election “are not predictive” before asking for a $25 donation,” Rove wrote of how Biden’s reelection campaign reacted to the latest New York Times poll showing the president losing to Trump in several key swing states.

“Spokesman Kevin Munoz opined that ‘predictions more than a year out tend to look a little different a year later,’ then said a Gallup poll had Barack Obama trailing Mitt Romney by 8 points a year before the 2012 election. Actually, Mr. Obama’s overall numbers were much better than that: He led Mr. Romney 46% to 44.3% on Nov. 7, 2011, in the RealClearPolitics average,” Rove continued, adding:

Mr. Obama also had advantages Mr. Biden doesn’t. The public saw Mr. Obama as a strong leader—young, energetic, mentally sharp and a much better and more natural political talent than Mr. Biden. He prosecuted his argument that Mr. Romney was a heartless plutocrat from a position of strength. Mr. Biden is operating from a position of extreme weakness. It will be much harder for him to take Mr. Trump down.

While Rove made clear that Biden does not appear to be in a strong position for reelection, he also argued that Trump is holding the GOP back from what could be a sure win in 2024.

After running through polling data showing the other GOP primary candidates clobbering Biden, Rove argued, “This suggests Republicans could score a historic victory next year if they run a new face.” Rove, whom President George W. Bush dubbed “the architect” is credited with the GOP’s last popular vote win in a presidential election and the only one since 1988 — Bush’s 2004 reelection.

“Apparently voters like what they see as the GOP’s values on the economy, defense, immigration, crime and the national debt. Democratic messaging mavens can try casting a fresh Republican as a Jan. 6 insurrectionist, an election-denying fabulist, a demagogic white supremacist. But voters wouldn’t be responding so positively in polls if they thought “Republican” was synonymous with all that nonsense,” Rove added, taking an indirect swipe at Trump.

“Both party’s front-runners have enormous weaknesses. Joe and Jill Biden are deluding themselves if they believe only he can defeat Mr. Trump. But the GOP leader could sink his own campaign with his constant trashing of his intra-party rivals and their supporters. Turned off, they could fail to turn out or even turn away from the GOP,” Rove continued before concluding:

Neither party’s front-runner will be easily dislodged. But if no changes are made, Americans will get the worst dumpster fire of a campaign in history. It doesn’t have to be this way, and everyone but Messrs. Trump and Biden has good reason to try changing it. The party that picks a fresh face will likely win the White House.