Elections

First Polls Trickling Out After Debate Signal Bad News for Biden

UH-OH

New numbers show American voters have a rising sense of unease about the president’s viability, but don’t agree on who should be tapped to replace him.

US President Joe Biden looks down as he participates in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

The first batch of polls after President Joe Biden’s dead-eyed performance at Thursday’s presidential debate show U.S. voters nervous about his viability as a candidate against Donald Trump. Even as the president’s family, top aides, and Democratic allies on the Hill scramble to rally around him, voters are dragging their feet, with a USA Today-Suffolk poll of 1,000 registered voters surveyed over the weekend showing that 41 percent of Democrats believe Biden should be replaced as the party’s nominee, including 37 percent who said they still planned to vote for him. According to the poll, while 50 percent of respondents believe Trump won, just 11 percent believe Biden did. Elsewhere, a CBS News-YouGov poll conducted among 1,130 registered voters between Friday and Saturday showed that a precipitous 72 percent of respondents believe Biden does not have the mental and cognitive health to serve as president, up from 65 percent on June 9. A Morning Consult poll of 2,068 voters surveyed after the debate showed 60 percent believe Biden should “definitely” or “probably” be replaced, although there was no clear consensus on who could replace him.

Read it at USA Today