- Voters nationwide are far more concerned over President Joe Biden’s age and mental capacity to serve than they are about former President Donald Trump’s, several recently released national 2024 polls found.
- Biden would be 86-years-old by the end of a potential second term, and special counsel Robert Hur’s classified documents report described the president as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
- “A lot of this has to do with how old each candidate seems as opposed to how old they actually are,” Ron Faucheux, a nonpartisan polling analyst, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
A new batch of national 2024 polls found that voters are far more concerned over President Joe Biden’s age and mental acuity as he seeks another term in November than they are about former President Donald Trump’s.
Biden is already the oldest U.S. president in history, and would be 86-years-old by the end of a potential second term. While the former president is only four years younger than Biden, several recently released polls found voters expressing significantly more doubt in the president’s ability to serve at his age than Trump’s.
“Even though they are roughly the same age, polling has routinely showed voters are more concerned about Biden’s age than Trump’s,” Kyle Kondik, nonpartisan polling analyst and managing editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This has long been the case in polling and it continues to show up. I do think Biden probably just looks his age more than Trump.”
Only 36% of registered voters in a Wall Street Journal survey published Sunday believe Biden is “mentally up for the job” compared to 49% who said the same of the former president. The survey, which found the former president leading by two points, also found 73% saying the president is “too old to run,” while 52% believe the same is true of Trump.
Another survey released on Sunday from CBS News/YouGov indicated 43% believe the former president has the “mental and cognitive health to serve,” compared to 26% who said the same of Biden. The same poll found Trump leading the president by four points among registered voters.
“It’ll be incumbent on Biden and his team to push enough voters to care more about Trump’s liabilities as the campaign moves forward,” Kondik said. “If this is a referendum on Biden, he very likely loses, but if it’s more of a choice where voters are thinking about Trump’s problems, too, then Biden may be in better shape.”
A New York Times/Siena College survey released Saturday found 72% of likely voters saying Biden is “just too old to be an effective president,” while only 42% said the same of Trump. The poll also found the former president leading Biden by four points.
Other recent national surveys conducted by Fox News and Forbes/HarrisX yielded similar results on the discrepancy between Trump and Biden’s age and mental capacity to serve. The polls had Trump leading Biden by two and four points, respectively.
“Here’s what Americans know — if it misspeaks like a duck, trips up steps like a duck, and forgets key facts like a duck — it’s a mentally declined duck,” Mark Weaver, a veteran Republican strategist, told the DCNF. “Sad but true.”
All of the surveys were conducted following the release of special counsel Robert Hur’s report, which described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur declined to bring charges against Biden over withholding classified documents related to important national security matters from when he was vice president.
“It’s not about age, it’s about competency, and Joe Biden is incompetent,” Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, told the DCNF. “His cognitive and physical decline is obvious to anyone with eyes to see his daily gaffes, memory lapses, and tripping over his own feet. Biden’s own DOJ recently concluded that he is mentally unfit to stand trial, which means he certainly does not have the mental fitness to lead our country.”
“Biden’s incompetence is one of the many reasons why voters will evict Biden from the White House in November and re-elect President Trump, who has the tenacity, work ethic, and energy required to lead America back to greatness,” Leavitt added.
Over 80% of voters across battleground states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin believe Biden is “too old,” compared to only 46% who said the same of Trump, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey released Thursday.
The same poll also found far more swing-state voters saying the former president is “mentally fit” and “in good health” than Biden is.
“A lot of this has to do with how old each candidate seems as opposed to how old they actually are,” Ron Faucheux, president of nonpartisan polling firm President of Clarus Research Group, told the DCNF. “While Biden is only a few years older than Trump, he seems much older and carries himself as older. To many voters, Trump is ageless while Biden is rapidly aging.”
Trump continues to rack up 2024 primary wins against former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, strengthening his grip on the Republican nomination.
The former president is currently leading Biden by 2.3 points in the RealClearPolitics average for a potential general election rematch. Trump is also advantaged in several presidential battleground states like Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Jon McHenry, a GOP polling analyst and vice president at North Star Opinion Research, warned of potential hiccups Biden could deliver during his State of The Union speech on Thursday that could further drive the polling trend.
“The big problem for the Biden campaign is that proving their candidate is vigorous enough to serve well for another four years is an almost impossible task,” McHenry told the DCNF. “They don’t seem to want to risk him out in public and further proving voters’ doubts, so they look like they are coddling a man who can’t be trusted in public. And any slips in public — literal or figurative — reinforce the already-formed public perception that the President is too old.”
Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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