Former President Donald Trump‘s lead over Joe Biden has dramatically expanded in the days following the president’s disastrous debate, according to a new poll released as Democrats huddle and plot their next steps.
A New York Times-Siena College poll released Wednesday shows Trump leading Biden 49% to 43% nationally among likely voters, a 3-point improvement for Trump from just a week earlier before the debate. The survey, which was conducted from June 28 through Tuesday, July 2, found Trump is leading by even more among registered voters, 49% to 41%.
Biden’s dismal performance at Thursday’s debate continues to confront deeper doubts among Democrats about electing an 81-year-old and his fitness for office. Now, those concerns are reflected in the polling. A majority of every group in the poll, including black voters and Biden’s own supporters, said they believe the president’s age is problematic.
Overall, 74% of voters said they believe Biden is too old to stay in the White House, a number that is up 5 percentage points since the debate. Even among Democrats, concerns about Biden’s age increased by 8 percentage points in the days following the debate to 59%. The share of independent voters who said they felt that way increased to 79%.
Half of voters polled said they agree his “age is such a problem that he is not capable of handling the job of president,” and that number was even higher among independent voters, at 55%. Trump’s age is also highlighted in the polling — with 42% of voters viewing the former president as too old for the job, which was an increase of 3 points from a week before. However, the viewpoint was heavily embraced among Democrats. Only 19% of respondents found Trump was too old to be capable of handling the job.
There were some silver linings in the poll — the number of Democrats who think Biden should no longer be the Democratic nominee increased, but only slightly and by less than the concern about his age. Biden’s previous 5-point lead among likely women voters ahead of the debate also increased slightly to 8 points.
The Biden campaign sent a memo to staff earlier Wednesday looking to get ahead of this poll, which shows the president in a deep hole with four months until the election.
“Both internal and outside polling confirm that the race remains incredibly tight, and I agree with the Times that today’s polling doesn’t fundamentally change the course of the race,” Biden campaign pollster Molly Murphy said. “President Biden continues to narrow Trump’s support among independents, and we have work to do to bring home our coalition — all the while, Trump appears unable to expand his coalition.”
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Biden spoke to key Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and on a campaign call as he faces calls to step aside.
The poll was conducted via telephone calls using live interviewers and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points. Biden announced he would be staying in the race until the bitter end on a campaign conference call.
