A majority of Americans who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 now believe his age prevents him from being an effective president, according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll of registered voters.
Sixty-one percent of 2020 Biden voters surveyed told pollsters the current president is old enough that he can no longer do the job well, while 19 percent of those who supported him four years ago said he is too old to hold the position at all. 13 percent of respondents who plan to vote for Biden in November believe the same.
On a wider scale, 45 percent of registered voters think Biden’s “age is such a problem that he is not capable of handling the job of president,” while 25 percent either somewhat or strongly disagree with the idea that he is “just too old to be an effective president.” In swing states, 55 percent of respondents who voted for Biden in 2020 think his age precludes him succeeding in the Oval Office.
Former president Donald Trump, while only four years younger than Biden, did not elicit the same concerns from respondents. Nineteen percent of registered voters said Trump’s age renders him unable to serve as president, with 21 responding that his “age makes him ineffective, but he is still able to handle the job of president well enough.”
Trump fell behind Biden in questions about personality. Fifty-one percent of registered voters said Biden possesses the temperament necessary to be an effective president, while 41 percent said the same about Trump.
One of the larger gulfs between the two candidates came when pollsters asked about whether the respective policies they pursued while in office hurt or helped respondents personally. Eighteen percent said Biden’s policies had helped them — compared to 40 percent for Trump — and 43 percent believe Biden’s policies have hurt them. 25 percent of registered voters told pollsters that Trump’s policies negatively impacted them.
Forty-eight percent of registered voters said, if the election were held today, that they would choose Trump, a five-point lead over the current president.
The Times/Siena survey is the latest in a series of negative polls for Biden. CBS News and YouGov found Trump with a four-point lead over Biden, and a recent Harvard/Harris poll showed Trump winning 53 percent of voters surveyed and Biden with 47 percent. The RealClearPolitics average has Trump at a 2.3-percentage-point advantage over Biden, and only one of the eleven surveys listed projects the current president’s re-election. Trump has maintained his position over Biden in the polling average since September.