A new national poll shows former President Trump widening his lead over President Biden in a 2024 presidential rematch after Biden was heavily criticized for his performance in last week’s debate.
The poll, published Wednesday by The New York Times and Siena College, highlights growing concerns that Biden, who at 81 is the oldest president in U.S. history, may not be able to govern the country effectively.
Biden is facing the toughest period in his more than year-long campaign to seek a second term in the White House after his awkward speaking style and stumbling answers. At the debate Biden’s presidential debate with Trump in Atlanta on Thursday caused widespread panic within the Democratic Party, with political commentators, editorial writers and some party donors calling for Biden to be dismissed as a 2024 presidential candidate.
Additionally, over the past 24 hours, a small but growing number of House Democrats have also urged the president not to seek reelection.
Biden campaign sends memo to ‘all staff’ to address deep concerns
Former President Trump and President Biden debated in Atlanta on Thursday. (Getty Images)
The president is scheduled to meet with Democratic governors and congressional leaders on Wednesday night following the debate debacle.
But Biden’s campaign has repeatedly insisted the president has no intention of dropping out of the race.
According to the poll, Trump is currently leading Biden among voters nationwide, 49% to 43%, a three-point increase in support for the Republican presidential candidate since the last survey. New York Times/Siena College Poll Just a week ago.
And among the larger group of registered voters, Trump leads Biden by 49% to 41%.
Hours after the New York Times/Siena College poll was released, another prominent national survey produced similar headlines.
Trump led Biden among registered voters, 48% to 42%. Wall Street Journal PollThe former president and the incumbent Democratic president’s lead in the White House has grown from a two-point margin in February.
Two post-debate polls released this week signal warning signs for Biden
But beyond the top-line numbers, the polls also offered further warning signs for Biden.
A Wall Street Journal poll (also conducted after the debate) found that 80% of respondents thought the president was too old to run for a second term.
Meanwhile, a New York Times/Siena College poll found that nearly three-quarters of respondents believe Biden is too old for the presidency, up five points since the debate.
Among Democrats, concerns about the president’s age rose 8 percentage points to 59%, and nearly 8 in 10 independents surveyed also said they thought Biden was too old to serve in the White House.
President Biden responded after speaking at a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina on June 28. (AP Photo/Matt Kelly)
There was some good news for Biden in the polls: He narrowed his lead among independents, but that came at the cost of Biden’s falling approval rating among Democrats and Trump’s rising approval rating among Republicans.
And the percentage of Democrats who say Biden should no longer be the party’s presidential nominee rose slightly, rather than soaring to new heights.
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In a statement to Fox News after the New York Times/Siena College poll was released, Biden campaign pollster Molly Murphy maintained the presidential race remains close.
“Internal and external polling all confirm the race remains very close, and I agree with the Times that today’s poll will not fundamentally change the course of the race. President Biden continues to narrow Trump’s support among independents, and we have work to do to lead our coalition to victory. Meanwhile, Trump does not appear to be able to expand his coalition,” Murphy wrote.
Murphy also pointed out that the Biden campaign has an advantage through its low-trust, divided political environment, arguing that “the low-trust work our campaign does will be critical to winning voter support in a politically divided environment. The Trump campaign has done very little of that, and is saddled with a burden of harmful policies for undecided voters. President Biden has work to do, but he will run on the issues that he is confident will deliver victory in November’s election.”
Ahead of the poll’s release on Wednesday afternoon, the Biden campaign sent a new memo to all staffers seeking to ease concerns about his chances of reelection.
The memo, obtained by Fox News, highlights internal campaign polling that shows the race with Trump remains close.
Former President Trump spoke at a campaign event held at Historic Greenbriar Farms in Chesapeake, Virginia on June 28. (Parker Michels Boyce/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Several polls will be released today and we want to share with you what we know internally and what we expect to see from the outside,” the memo said. “You should be prepared that polls are a snapshot in time and will continue to fluctuate. It will take weeks, not days, to get a complete picture of the race.”
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The memo, signed by campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, presented internal battleground state polls from before and after the debate that showed Biden’s support dropped by half a percentage point during that period.
The Biden campaign also pointed to a New York Times poll that had not yet been released at the time the memo was issued, stressing that “we should all keep in mind that the New York Times itself acknowledged last week that it is often an outlier in its polls.”
The poll was conducted after the debate between June 28 and July 2, and 1,532 voters nationwide were questioned.
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