Fox News Channel's Tucker Carlson Tucker CarlsonEx-Pence aide: Trump spent 45 minutes of task force meeting 'going off on Tucker Carlson' instead of talking coronavirus Biden town hall draws 3.3 million viewers for CNN OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Cheney asks DOJ to probe environmental groups | Kudlow: 'No sector worse hurt than energy' during pandemic | Trump pledges 'no politics' in Pebble Mine review MORE on Monday said that he thinks Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE (I-Vt.) is capable of taking "many thousands" of votes from President Trump Donald John TrumpObama calls on Senate not to fill Ginsburg's vacancy until after election Planned Parenthood: 'The fate of our rights' depends on Ginsburg replacement Progressive group to spend M in ad campaign on Supreme Court vacancy MORE if the longtime senator becomes the Democratic presidential nominee.

“A year from today, we’ll be hosting this show from the National Mall as the next president of the United States takes the oath of office,” Carlson said to begin his opening monologue. “Will that president be Donald Trump? As of tonight, Republicans in Washington feel confident it will be.”

He warned that Republicans thinking that a second term is assured are making a mistake.

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“The official economic numbers are strong. The Democratic primaries are a freak show — elderly socialists accusing each other of thoughtcrimes. Republicans are starting to think victory is assured. That’s a mistake,” he continued. “America remains as divided as it was three years ago. No matter what happens, nobody’s going to win this election in a national landslide. Those don’t happen anymore. Trump could lose. Will he? That depends on what he runs on.”

Carlson then showed numbers for Trump on the economy that show while the main indicators are strong, there are some other numbers that should concern the president. He pointed to a Pew Research study that shows just 31 percent of Americans say the economy is helping them and their families, and just 32 percent say they believe the current economy helps the middle class.

Carlson then pivoted to Sanders's potential appeal to certain voter groups and said Republicans need a plan to battle that appeal.

“Bernie Sanders may get the Democratic nomination,” Carlson said. “If he does, every Republican in Washington will spend the next 10 months reminding you that socialism doesn’t work, and never has. They’ll be right, obviously,” Carlson explained.

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“But if Sanders pledges to forgive student loans, he’ll still win many thousands of voters who went for Donald Trump last time. Debt is crushing an entire generation of Americans. Republicans need a plan to make it better, or they’ll be left behind.”

“They’re conservative in the most basic sense: They love their families above all,” the host concluded. “They distrust radical theories of anything because they know that when the world turns upside down, ordinary people get hurt. They don’t want to burn it down. They just want things to get better. The candidate who promises to make them better — incrementally, but tangibly — will be inaugurated president a year from today.”

A Trump-Sanders match-up in the RealClearPolitics index of polls shows Sanders and the president in what would be a potentially tight race with Sanders holding a 48-45 edge.

In 2016, Trump lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhat Senate Republicans have said about election-year Supreme Court vacancies Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Trump carries on with rally, unaware of Ginsburg's death MORE by 2.1 percentage points but won the Electoral College 304-227 by capturing key Midwest states that had historically voted Democratic, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.