A new poll shows that a majority of voters who backed President Joe Biden in 2020 now think he is too old to be a good president.
According to The New York Times, which partnered with Siena College in a new poll, 61 percent of those who backed Biden in 2020 agreed with the statement that he was “just too old to be an effective president.”
Of that number, 47 percent agreed very strongly with the statement, and only 11 percent strongly disagreed.
Flipping from the 81-year-old Biden to 77-year-old Trump, the results belied the almost four-year age gap between them. A total of 42 percent agreed with the statement about being too old, but only 21 percent strongly agreed. Meanwhile, 32 percent strongly disagreed.
The poll asked the question a different way, but the results were the same.
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When asked whether age made the candidate incapable of handling the job of being president, 45 percent said Biden was not up to the job and another 26 percent said age made him ineffective. When respondents were asked that of Trump, 19 percent said he was not capable of handling the job and 21 percent said age made him ineffective.
In the category of “not too old to be an effective president,” Trump scored 56 percent against 25 percent for Biden.
Otto Abad, 50, an independent from Scott, Louisiana, said he backed Biden in 2020 to achieve a calmer nation, but now says he has some concerns.
“If he was in this sort of mental shape, I didn’t realize back then,” Abad said. “He’s aged a lot. With the exception of Trump, every president seems to age a lot during their presidency.”
Are you voting against Biden in 2024?
Yes: 96% (139 Votes)
No: 4% (6 Votes)
Shermaine Elmore, 44, who owns a small business in Baltimore, said he will not vote for Biden as he did in 2020.
“I don’t think he’s in the best health to make a decision if the country needs the president to make a decision,” he said.
The poll also showed that if the election was held today, 48 percent supported Trump against 43 percent for Biden.
The New York Times/Siena College poll of 980 registered voters nationwide was conducted in English and Spanish on cellular and landline telephones from Feb. 25 to 28, 2024. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for registered voters, and plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for likely voters.
The poll found that Trump voters are more loyal than those who backed Biden.
Ninety-seven percent of Trump’s 2020 backers surveyed will vote for him again, as opposed to 83 percent of Biden’s supporters, 10 percent of whom said they will back Trump.
Only 23 percent of Democratic primary voters showed enthusiasm for Biden against 48 percent of Republicans who were enthusiastic about supporting Trump.
“If we get Trump for another four years, we get a little better on economics,” Oscar Rivera, 39, an independent voter in Rochester, New York, said.
“Biden? I don’t know,” Rivera said. “It looks like we’re weak, America’s weak. We need someone stronger.”
