The Biden campaign was hardly shocked: the internal polls were also worrying.

The sour numbers for President Biden in the new polls from battleground states from The New York Times and Siena College came as no surprise to officials in his re-election campaign.

The campaign’s internal polling in recent weeks had shown Biden losing ground among voters of color, a key Democratic Party constituency, and trailing former President Donald J. Trump in key battleground states.

On Sunday, the Biden campaign circulated talking points among its surrogates that downplayed the relevance of polls in general, questioned how many voters are tuned into the 2024 presidential contest a year before Election Day and offered a reminder that past presidents have had poor approval ratings before. be re-elected.

“Our campaign is being built to win an election in November 2024 – not the next New York Times poll,” said Kevin Munoz, spokesman for the Biden campaign.

Biden aides pointed to it an excerpt from Donna Brazilethe veteran Democratic operative, delivering an authorized “don’t worry” message during a Sunday morning appearance on the ABC program “This Week.”

“I am old enough to remember when Ronald Reagan was gunning for re-election in 1980,” Ms. Brazile said. “I’m old enough to remember when Bill Clinton was on the back foot, and Barack Obama was laughed at just before the 2012 re-election. Don’t count out Joe Biden.”