There are still doubts over Joe Biden’s leadership of the Democratic Party as he trails five points behind Donald Trump ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
Around 45 percent of registered voters said they would vote for Trump while just 43 percent would cast their ballot for the current president, according to a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College.
There are just eight months left until the presidential election in November and Biden’s support continues to lag behind Trump.
The number of those who strongly disapprove of Biden’s handling of the presidency has reached 47 percent, which is the highest it has ever been in any poll by The New York Times and Siena.
While twice as many voter believe his policies have hurt them personally compared to those who think they have helped them.
There are still doubts over Joe Biden’s leadership of the Democratic Party as he trails five points behind Donald Trump ahead of the upcoming presidential election
There are just eight months left until the presidential election in November and Biden’s support continues to lag behind Trump
Around 45 percent of registered voters said they would vote for Trump while just 43 percent would cast their ballot for the current president, according to a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College
Biden stormed through the early nominating states with minimal opposition but the poll, conducted in February, has revealed there is division amongst Democrats about him leading the party again.
There is a split between those who think he should not be the 2024 nominee and those who do and the opposition is stronger with voters 45 and younger.
The majority in the poll also revealed they think the economy is in poor condition under Biden.
While Trump has solidified support within his own party as the presidential nominee with 97 per cent of those who voted for him four years ago saying they would do the same this year.
Almost none of his past supporters said they will be voting for Biden whereas the current president is winning back just 83 percent of his 2020 supporters and 10 percent said they will now be voting for Trump.
‘It’s going to be a very tough decision — I’m seriously thinking about not voting,’ Mamta Misra, 57, a Democrat economics professor said.
He voted for Biden in 2020 and added: ‘Trump voters are going to come out no matter what. For Democrats, it’s going to be bad. I don’t know why they’re not thinking of someone else.’
Trump has built up a slightly larger lead over Biden compared to the poll of registered voters in December and among the likely electorate he leads by four percentage points.
Biden is narrowly leading among non-white voters who did not graduate from college with 47 percent compared to 41.
But more Democrats said they were dissatisfied or angry at the current president’s leadership of the party compared to Republicans who feel the same about Trump.
Around two thirds of voters are unhappy with the state of the US and believe the nation is heading in the wrong direction and Trump is winning the vote of 63 percent of these people.
President Biden, 81, departing Walter Reed National Military Medical Center following a physical on Wednesday where his doctor declared him ‘fit for duty’
Former President Donald Trump held a campaign event in Michigan on February 17. After winning Saturday’s South Carolina primary, he’s stayed off the campaign trail, but has planned visits to Texas, North Carolina and Virginia – Super Tuesday states – over the next few days
‘If we get Trump for another four years, we get a little better on economics,’ said Oscar Rivera, 39, an independent voter with a roofing business in Rochester, New York.
He added that he does not like the way Trump speaks about immigration but that he would vote for him anyway.
‘Biden? I don’t know,’ Rivera said. It looks like we’re weak, America’s weak. We need someone stronger.’
Others have been left unimpressed at how Biden has handled the humanitarian crisis which has unfolded in Palestine.
‘Joe Biden should be doing more to ensure that the Israeli government goes about this in a way that provides safety for them but without the civilian toll,’ said Philip Kalarickal, 51, an anesthesiologist in Decatur, Georgia.
‘I understand that my vote or lack of vote carries a consequence, and I look at the alternative and that’s worse than the current thing.
‘But I do want to register my displeasure. The way I vote doesn’t mean I like it.’
It comes after recent polls showed Biden is trailing Trump in seven swing states likely to decide the outcome of the election.
Trump got into office in 2016 by beating Hillary Clinton in crucial battlegrounds even while losing the popular vote, and now his 81-year-old opponent finds himself down in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia even while running as the incumbent.
The gap is growing in Arizona, according to a new Bloomberg / Morning Consult poll, with Trump leading Biden 49 to 43 amid the border crisis. His lead his 48 to 42 in Nevada. Biden carried both states in 2020, winning Arizona by just 10,000 votes.
Biden also scored a narrow 2020 win in Georgia, in a state that now has two Democratic senators. But he trails Trump there by six points, 49 to 43.
His win by seven million votes nationwide was powered by gains in Midwest, with critical wins in Michigan and Wisconsin.
The race in Michigan has tightened in the Bloomberg poll, with Trump leading by just two points, 46 to 44. But Biden got warning signs there this week when ‘Uncommitted’ got 13 per cent on the ballot, and he lost the city of Dearborn amid fury over his policy on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
The poll even gives Trump a hefty lead in Pennsylvania, a state Biden has tended to assiduously, with a 49 to 43 per cent lead.
The Real Clear Politics average has Trump’s lead at a narrower four per cent there.
In North Carolina, Trump leads Biden 50 to 41.
His strong poll showings in battlegrounds is helping Trump to undercut Nikki Haley’s message: that she can beat Biden and Trump could continue a string of Republican defeats.
It came in a poll showing eight in ten swing-state voters believe Biden is too old to run again, a serious warning sign for the 81-year-old president who will need to convince voters in those key states to vote for him in order to win the 2024 election.
The Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll conducted in mid-February across seven critical swing-states found voters across every demographic including some of the more reliable Democratic party constituencies believe the president is too old.
The Biden administration has been pushing back on concerns over the president’s age and mental acuity after the Special Counsel Robert Hur report earlier this month described the president as an ‘elderly man with poor memory.’
Former President Donald Trump, 77, holds leads in seven swing states that will determine the winner of the White House in November
Migrants crossing the border at Eagle Pass, Mexico. Both Biden and Trump headed to the southern border on Thursday for dueling events as polling shows immigration ticks up as a major issue among swing-state voters
On Wednesday, Biden had a physical and his doctor declare him ‘fit for duty’ describing the president as a ‘healthy active, robust 81-year-old.’
The White House had confirmed the president did not take a cognitive test as part of his exam, but Physician to the President, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, did say that Biden did sit for ‘an extremely detailed neurological exam.’
But even among those who did say they plan to vote for Biden, seven in 10 say he is ‘too old.’
Less than half of respondents said that Biden’s likely GOP rival former President Donald Trump at 77-years-old is too old.
The polling found Trump leads Biden across all seven battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
While the economy remains the top issue, concern over immigration has ticked up across every swing state.
The polling found the majority of swing-state voters blame Biden and congressional Democrats for the surge in migrants.
At the same time, blame for congressional Republicans and the Trump administration, though much lower, have also ticked up 5 percent from January after Republicans tanked the bipartisan border deal with Trump’s encouragement.
Biden and Trump are both headed to the southern border on Thursday where they will hold dueling events. The president is headed to Brownsville, Texas. Trump is headed to Eagle Pass which has been ground zero of a border fight between Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Biden administration.
While Republicans have blasted the administration over immigration, the White House has pushed back blaming hardline Republicans for crushing a bipartisan Senate deal to address the border earlier this year.
Biden is facing growing blame over the border crisis and the vast majority are concerned about his age, Trump is not without his own vulnerabilities.
Nearly six in ten swing-state voters believe Trump is ‘dangerous.’ Even among those who plan to vote for the former president, 28 percent agreed Trump is dangerous.
As many of half of swing-state voters also say they would be unwilling to vote for Trump if he is convicted of a crime.
The former president is facing 91 criminal charges in four separate cases involving allegations over hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, mishandling classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.