President Biden’s age is seen as a much bigger hurdle than former President Donald Trump’s, according to a new poll conducted ahead of Thursday’s CNN presidential debate.
At 81, Biden is just three years older than Trump, who turned 78 this month, but a Gallup poll released Wednesday found that about 67% of Americans say Biden is too old to be president, nearly double the 37% who said the same about Trump.
The poll was conducted between June 2 and 23 after Trump was convicted in his Manhattan hush money trial, but previous Gallup polls have shown that 31% of Americans would be willing to vote for a presidential candidate over 80 years old, and 63% would be willing to vote for a candidate over 70 years old.
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Former President Donald Trump and President Biden are scheduled to debate on Thursday. (Associated Press)
Gallup’s June poll asked half of respondents whether each candidate was too old to be president and the other half whether they were concerned each candidate was too old to be president, with 59% saying they were “very concerned” about Biden’s age, compared with 18% for Trump.
“Including those who say they are ‘somewhat concerned,’ 76% worry Biden is too old to serve in the presidency, while 38% are concerned about Trump,” Gallup said.
Gallup found that Biden’s age is a potential stumbling block not only for Republicans and independents — a majority of whom think Biden is too old and are very concerned — but also for a sizable minority of Democrats: 44% of Democrats said Biden is too old, and 31% were very concerned.
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Former President Donald Trump takes to the stage to deliver the keynote address at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Majority Policy Conference at the Washington Hilton on June 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
President Trump was 70 when he took office in 2017, and President Biden will be 78 in 2021.
Before them, Ronald Reagan was the oldest US president: he was 69 when he took office in 1981 and 77 when he left office in 1989.
A separate New York Times/Siena College poll conducted June 20-25 also asked respondents whether they thought Biden and Trump were too old to be president. The results, released Wednesday, showed that 68% agreed that Biden is too old, compared with 39% who agreed with Trump.
President Joe Biden meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office at the White House on June 17, 2024. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
With just over four months until Election Day, Thursday’s debate holds a rare chance of changing the trajectory of the campaign for both candidates.
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Trump and Biden have not shared the same stage or even spoken since their last debate, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, and Trump did not attend Biden’s inauguration.
Thursday’s broadcast on CNN will be the earliest general election debate in history and the first televised presidential general election debate hosted by a single news organization since the two sides abandoned the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which has hosted all debates since 1988.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
