CNN panel gets defensive over network's own poll showing most Dems don't want Biden to run again: 'Biden is winning!'

A CNN panel worked overtime on Thursday to defend President Joe Biden from their network's own poll.

What about that poll?

CNN released a new poll this week showing that a majority of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters want their party to nominate someone other than Biden as their 2024 candidate for the White House.

The vast majority, nearly three-quarters, of those Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters said they had no preference of who should replace Biden — they just want someone else, anyone else.

What did the CNN panel say?

Reacting to the poll on "CNN This Morning," network anchor Don Lemon and political analyst Maggie Haberman appeared to be in denial over the poll's results.

"Biden is the sitting president, so he is just definitionally in a stronger position. I'm sorry, he just is," Haberman defended. "And so even though I know that there are a lot of people in his party who privately will say they don't want him to run, until those people start saying that publicly, Biden is in good shape."

Lemon took the defense of Biden farther. Not only is the poll not troubling for Biden, but the president "is winning," Lemon declared.

"Biden is winning. I'm sorry, Biden is winning," Lemon said. "And I don't know what the polling is showing, if you look at the Inflation Reduction Act, lower gas prices, lower prescription drug prices, better than expected midterm for Democrats, Brittney Griner's release from Russia, the Respect for Marriage Act. I mean, Biden is winning."

Lemon even began to suggest the poll is wrong, but cut himself off to predict that Biden will run for reelection.

Anything else?

While Biden may be "winning" in Lemon's eyes, the president would likely struggle to win a head-to-head matchup against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

A new USA Today-Suffolk University poll released this week showed that DeSantis would defeat Biden by four points, 47% to 43%. Still, as Haberman pointed out, all "signs are that Biden is going to run."