Fetterman insists Biden would have beaten Trump if he stayed in the race

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said that President Joe Biden would have beaten former President Donald Trump had the original Democratic nominee stayed in the race.

Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July after a disastrous debate performance and tanking poll numbers, leading to a consensus among Democratic leaders that he had no path to victory. In an appearance on CNN's State of the Union, Fetterman disagreed, arguing that the president would have won reelection if he didn't drop out.

When host Dana Bash confronted the Pennsylvania senator over his quote after the debate that replacing Biden was the "dumbest s***" he's ever heard, Fetterman largely stuck to his guns, defending Vice President Kamala Harris but maintaining that Biden was a winning candidate.

"I do believe, fundamentally, that Joe Biden would have beaten Trump, and it was going to be very close, and I've always predicted that as well, too," he said. "And now Harris, and again, she's had an amazing run so far, and we're raising record, record amounts of money , and she's had an incredible all kinds of the last six weeks. But right now, it's here we are, and it's going to be close, and it comes down to that very same, very stark choice."

"I have said this. I challenge anybody — pull up anything that I've said about this kinds [sic] of elections all the way back eight years ago; I've said that it was going to be close when everybody thought that Hillary Clinton was going to pull it away, and she wrecked him. She actually wrecked Trump, objectively, on the three debates, and people thought that Joe Biden was going to win by three or five points, and I didn't think that was going to be the case. And, of course, we know how close that is," Fetterman continued.

He then proceeded to defend Harris, expressing his belief that she would prevail.

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"And now with ... Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, it's going to be close as well too," Fetterman continued. "And I do believe she is going to prevail because a majority of Pennsylvanians are going to decide that we want a new way forward, and we don't want that kind of, you know, mess, this absolute chaos kinds of a thing."

A New York Times/Sienna poll released Sunday had Harris and Trump neck-and-neck in Pennsylvania and every other battleground state.