Former President Donald Trump has a slight lead over President Biden in the first national poll since the incumbent’s disastrous defeat in the CNN debate.
Biden, who is seen as the Republican presidential nominee, is the most likely candidate for the White House. Morning Consult Poll The poll, released Monday, also showed the fewest voters ever to consider the 81-year-old commander in chief mentally sound.
The survey, conducted among more than 10,000 voters between June 28 and 30, found Trump’s approval rating at 44% and Biden’s at 43%.
The poll had Biden leading the 78-year-old former president by one percentage point as of June 16, but as of June 23, last week before the debate, the two candidates were tied in support.
“The relative stagnation of the race suggests that Biden’s surprising performance in the debates may not have wowed voters as much as it surprised Democrats in Washington,” the pollster said.
But concerns about Biden’s mental and physical health have soared since his showdown with Trump.
Overall, just 37% of voters say the president is mentally fit for the job, down six points from the last pre-debate poll conducted by Morning Consult.
The decline was driven by Democratic supporters, 68% of whom said they thought Biden was fit for the presidency — a staggering nine percentage points down from before the debate.
“Both figures are the lowest on record,” the media outlet said, which has been asking voters this question since 2020.
The poll also found that independents favor Trump over Biden (37% to 33%) and that Trump maintains more support among 2020 presidential voters than Biden (89% to 82%).
Overall, just 5% of voters were undecided, and 8% said they planned to vote for a candidate other than Trump or Biden.
Biden appeared weak and at times incoherent in the first of two scheduled debates with Trump last week, consterning Democratic donors and strategists.
The president is facing growing calls to give up on reelection following his dismal performance.
In another Morning Consult poll conducted after the debate, 59% of independents and 47% of Democrats said they supported the idea. Biden agreed that he should be replaced. as the party’s presidential candidate.
