A jaw-dropping 72% of registered voters do not believe President Biden has the “mental and cognitive health necessary to serve as president” — as he continues to trail Donald Trump, two new polls show.
Only 27% of respondents in a CBS News/YouGov poll felt that Biden, 81, possesses the necessary mental strength needed for the grueling duties of the commander-in-chief, marking a drop in the finding from just over two weeks ago (35% “does,” to 65% “does not”).
The prior survey was taken June 9. The new one was conducted between June 28-29 to gauge the aftermath of the debate against former President Donald Trump that over 51 million watched.
Among Democratic voters, 59% believe Biden has the cognitive faculties necessary to be president, compared to 41% who don’t. This is down from 71% “does” to 29% “does not” in the June 9 poll.
Answers were about evenly split when the same question was asked about Trump, 78. Fifty percent of respondents said they felt that the former president has the cognitive capacity for the job while 49% believe he doesn’t.
Meanwhile, a Data for Progress survey showed Biden still lagging behind Trump in a presidential match-up.
Forty-five percent said they would choose Biden, while 48% indicated they would pull the lever for Trump, according to the survey, which polled 1,011 voters Friday.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been described as an obvious choice to replace Biden if he bows out of the race, would lose to Trump, too, by the same margin, the poll said.
According to the CBS poll, in another bad sign for Biden, only 54% of Democrats believe he should be running for president, compared to 46% who don’t want him running, a 10-point plunge from 64% to 36% back in February, respectively.
Among the electorate writ large, 72% say he shouldn’t be running, while 28% want him to, marking a dip from 63% to 37% back in February.
When asked to explain their concerns about Biden’s fitness, 86% cited his age, 71% the decisions he could make in office, 66% his record and 59% his ability to campaign.
Still, a chunk of voters is shrugging off the debate.
Voters generally felt that Biden was more truthful than Trump (40% to 32%) and 21% believed that Biden “presented ideas clearly” during last week’s Atlanta showdown.
The CBS News/YouGov survey sampled 1,130 registered voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points in that main bloc.
Some close allies of Biden grumbled that the poll did not peg results between the incumbent and Trump if the election were to be held today.
Trump touts a 2.9 percentage point lead over Biden in the most recent RealClearPolitics aggregate of a multi-candidate race.
He also leads in nearly all of the top seven battleground state aggregates on RCP.
Biden’s debate performance Thursday prompted mass panic among Democrats after the president appeared incoherent at times and stared blankly into the cameras.
Some Democrats have ripped Biden’s team as suffering from “delusion” and called for a replacement of him at the top of the ticket.
For now, the most prominent Democrats such as former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as congressional leadership, have coalesced around Biden.
Biden, himself, conceded afterward, “I don’t debate as well as I used to,” but stressed that he would not be vying for reelection if he didn’t have confidence in his abilities.
The 81-year-old is slated to be crowned the Democratic standard-bearer virtually within the coming weeks — before the Democratic National Convention in August.
