Biden is getting older, and it shows. But he just got the worst news of his life.
And Joe Biden’s alarming test results just changed everything.
President Biden is the oldest sitting president in the history of this country.
His obvious decline has led many to question whether he can effectively lead.
Now even his own party is turning on him.
According to a recent poll, half of prospective Democratic primary voters want the party to nominate someone other than President Biden to compete for the White House in 2024.
Although Biden is almost certain to be nominated for a second term next summer, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released Tuesday, only 45% of potential primary voters want the 80-year-old to be the party’s standard-bearer, while 50% prefer someone else.
A plurality of Democrats (39%) oppose Biden’s reelection because of his old age, while another 20% believe he hasn’t done enough to win a second term. Another 14% stated they would rather have someone new.
When asked how they would feel if Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, two-thirds (67%) said they would be “enthusiastic” or “satisfied” with the concept.
In comparison, more than seven in ten potential Democratic voters (71%) said they would be “enthusiastic” or “satisfied” if Biden was the party’s nominee, while Harris’ “enthusiastic” quotient was somewhat higher (26% vs. 20%).
Last year, only 26% of probable Democratic primary voters wanted Biden to be renominated, but over the next year, the president’s support among prospective Democratic voters 65 and older increased by 30%.
Biden has 64% support in the primary, while environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has 13% and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson has 10%.
In a rerun of the 2020 election, Biden and former President Donald Trump both gain 43% support, with 6% stating they were not going to vote at all or would not vote if those two major party candidates were the only ones running.
Another 4% said they would support someone else, while the other 4% stated they didn’t know or declined to answer.
Notably, Biden trails Trump by a slim margin among Hispanics (41%-38%) and self-described independents (42%-37%), while the former president leads the incumbent among those earning less than $50,000 per year (44%-40%) and $50,000 to $100,000 per year (44%-41%). Trump also has a 37% to 31% lead against Biden among those who did not vote in 2020.
In Tuesday’s poll, Biden’s job approval rating is 39%, but only 23% of respondents believe the US is on the right track (65% believe America is moving in the wrong direction). The president had a somewhat higher personal favorability rating of 43%, with 83% of his 2020 voters favoring him.
Meanwhile, 41% of those polled thought Trump was very or somewhat favorable. This figure rises to 83% among people who supported him in 2020.
Another red flag for the president: only 20% of respondents believe the economy is “excellent” (2%) or “good” (18%), while 78% say it is “fair” (29%) or “poor” (49%).
Biden has begun vigorously promoting “Bidenomics,” in an attempt to address Republican complaints about inflation and other monetary difficulties.
In the most recent RealClearPolitics poll, Biden leads Trump by 0.9 percentage points, and his average job approval rating is 42.1% approve to 54.1% disapprove.
The New York Times/Siena College poll was conducted July 23-27 among 1,329 registered voters, with a margin of error of 3.67 percentage points.
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