Americans have harbored concerns about President Joe Biden’s age and cognitive state since before he was even the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, but a new Politico/Morning Consult poll reveals just how much they doubt his aptitude.
According to the poll, only 40 percent of voters agreed that Biden “is in good health,” while 50 percent disagreed with that statement. The 10-point gap is worse than seems because it really represents a 29-point plummet since just over a year ago when that same question from Morning Consult showed voters trusting Biden’s health by a 19-point margin.
Voters are now almost evenly divided on Biden’s cognitive fitness, with 46 percent saying he is mentally fit and 48 percent saying he isn’t. Yet again, this 2-point deficit doesn’t capture the full picture of Americans’ rapidly waning trust. In October 2020, voters believed in Biden’s mental abilities by a 21-point margin, meaning their faith in his mind has plummeted 23 points.
While responses to this question fell largely along party lines, Democrats appeared less confident about backing Biden’s mental agility than Republicans were confident about his impairment. While 76 percent of Republicans strongly disagreed that “Joe Biden is mentally fit,” with 10 percent of GOP voters somewhat disagreeing, only 52 percent of Democrats strongly agreed with the sentiment, with a full 26 percent saying they only somewhat agreed.
The real indication of voters’ waning confidence in Biden, who was the oldest man ever sworn in as president and will be 79 on Saturday, is the swing of independents away from him. Among them, only 18 percent strongly agree that Biden is mentally fit, with 34 percent strongly disagreeing.
As Politico noted, the poll also revealed that “voters didn’t find Biden a clear communicator by 20 points, they didn’t find him energetic by 26 points and they did not find he was a strong leader by 17 points.”
According to a recent poll from The Federalist and Susquehanna Polling and Research out last week, Biden’s overall approval has also slipped to just 36 percent, with one in five registered Democrats saying they did not approve of the job Biden is doing as president and 50 percent of independents saying they did not approve of Biden.
As Biden’s approval rating and poll numbers have dropped, he’s tried to shrug them off, telling reporters at the end of October, “I didn’t run to determine how well I’m going to do in the polls.” But with the Biden administration causing or mishandling crisis after crisis, such as the Afghanistan withdrawal, COVID-19, the southern border, inflation, collusion with the National School Boards Association against parents, the supply-chain disaster, and more, there’s little indication his poll numbers will make a comeback anytime soon.
