2024-07-19 01:44:40
According to a new poll, nearly two-thirds of Democrats think President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate another candidate, a sharp contrast to his claims after the debate with Donald Trump that “ordinary Democrats” still are still with him, even though some “major figures” are turning against his candidacy, the Associated Press reported.
The new AP-NORC poll, conducted as Biden tries to salvage his candidacy two weeks after the debate’s debacle, also found that only three of one in ten Democrats are extremely or very confident that he has the mental capacity to effectively serve as president, down slightly from the 40 percent reported in the Center’s February survey.
The results underscore the challenges facing the 81-year-old president as he tries to quell calls from his own party to drop out of the race and tries to convince Democrats that he is the best candidate to beat Donald Trump. The survey was conducted mainly before Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. It’s unclear whether the shooting has affected people’s views of Biden, but the small number of poll inquiries conducted since the shooting give no early indication that his prospects have improved.
Meanwhile, as Vice President Kamala Harris gets extra attention amid talk of whether Biden should step down, the poll found her approval rating similar to his, but the share of Americans who have an unfavorable opinion of her , is slightly lower.
The poll provides some evidence that black Democrats are among Biden’s strongest supporters — roughly half of black respondents say he should continue to run, compared with about 3 in 10 white and Hispanic Democratic supporters. Overall, seven in 10 Americans think Biden should step down, and compared to Republicans and independents, the percentage of Democrats who think he should make way for a new candidate is smaller.
“I have genuine concerns about his ability to hold this office,” said Democrat Andrew Holcomb, 27, of Denver. “Frankly, I think he’s too old for the job,” he added.
Jenny Stapleton, a 50-year-old Democrat from Walls, Mississippi, takes the opposite view, saying Biden is “the best candidate” for president.
People aren’t just skeptical of Biden when weighing their choices for the upcoming vote.
About 6 in 10 Americans want Trump to step down, but relatively few Republicans share that view.
As for Biden, younger Democrats are particularly likely to want him out — and to say they’re unhappy with him. Three-quarters of Democrats under 45 want Biden to step down, compared to about 6 in 10 of older Democrats.
“I just think these two are a sad choice,” said Alexi Mitchell, a 35-year-old civil servant who lives in the state of Virginia. She defines herself as an independent Democrat, and while she thinks Biden is probably still mentally fit for the job, she worries that the drop in support over the past few weeks makes him a weak candidate regardless of what happens next. . “If he doesn’t have control over his own party, that’s a fatal flaw,” she said, adding: “He’s put us in a bad position where Trump can win.”
Despite the confident rhetoric from the Biden campaign regarding the debate, the clash only left the president in a weaker position. Democrats are slightly more likely to say they are unhappy with Biden as their nominee now than they were before his lackluster performance. About half of them are dissatisfied, up from 4 in 10 asked in a June AP-NORC survey.
By contrast, most Republicans — about 6 in 10 polled — remained after the debate very or somewhat satisfied with Trump as their candidate. Too few polls have been conducted since Trump’s assassination attempt to give a clear picture of whether Republicans, or Americans in general, have rallied even more around the Republican candidate since then.
As a result of all the recent political upheaval, Americans are far more likely to think Trump is capable of winning the election this year than Biden, 42 percent to 18 percent. About a quarter of Americans think both candidates are equally capable of winning.