Two-thirds of Americans say President Biden should not run for a second term, according to a new poll released Thursday, including more than half of those who say they would vote for him if he enters the presidential race on Nov. 5.
of ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos The survey found that 67% of American adults, 62% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, and 54% of Biden supporters want the president to abandon his reelection campaign.
Overall, 85% of Americans say Biden, who is 81, is too old to serve a second full term in the Oval Office, a sentiment shared by 81% of voters who plan to vote for him.
Among those who plan to vote for Biden on November 5, just 44% said he should continue in the election.
The survey is the latest to show the president’s approval rating plummeting, including in several key battleground states, following his disastrous June 27 debate with Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Since then, nine House Democrats have called on Biden to resign, along with Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) and New York Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado.
Senate Democrats are meeting with Biden’s advisers on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a key “big boy” press conference that the White House hopes will allay concerns that the president will be unable to do his job.
House Democrats met on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with Biden aide Jim Clyburn of South Carolina emerging more than an hour later to declare that lawmakers were “standing by Biden.”
Not everyone was comforted by Biden’s performance in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last week, with a former Clinton administration aide telling passersby in Manhattan on Tuesday that he didn’t think the president was qualified to serve another four years.
The poll also found that Trump had a 30 percentage point advantage over Biden on mental acuity, 44% to 14%.
But Trump, 78, is leading Biden by just one point (47% to 46%), a narrowing of the gap from the last poll in April, when Trump had a two-point lead (46% to 44%).
Some former Democrats, such as former Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, have openly called for Vice President Kamala Harris to replace Biden, with an ABC poll showing Harris leading Trump 49% to 46% among U.S. adults.
Harris also won among likely voters in a head-to-head matchup against the 45th president by 49% to 47%.
The ABC/Washington Post/Ipsos poll was conducted online July 5-9 and surveyed 2,431 U.S. adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points.
