Joe Biden is not out of the woods yet. The attack on Donald Trump last Saturday seems to have largely silenced the calls from the party’s major figures that the deranged Joe should drop out of the race, but a recent AP-NORC poll shows that nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters President withdraws from the race.
As President Biden continues to grapple with the fallout from his debate performance, 7 in 10 adults, including 65% of Democrats, say he should withdraw his candidacy and allow his party to nominate another candidate. There are growing doubts about Biden’s mental ability to be an effective president, and few adults believe he can win in November.
The poll, conducted July 11-15, much of it before the assassination of former President Donald Trump, shows that more people see Biden as straightforward than Trump, but Trump is more likely to be seen as capable of winning in November and handling a crisis better.
Overall, 57 percent of adults believe Trump should drop out of the race and let his party appoint a successor. However, Trump still has the support of his party: 73 percent of Republicans believe he should stay in the race.
Biden is facing increasing resistance from his party: only 35 percent of Democrats believe he should stay in the race.
As mentioned, the majority of the poll was conducted before Saturday’s assassination. While calls from party leaders for Biden to resign died down somewhat after that event, those calls resurfaced on Wednesday when Rep. Adam Schiff called on Biden to resign. And there are reports that Sen. Chuck Schumer traveled to Delaware to speak with Biden and call on him to resign.
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This survey contains some fascinating data points.
First, former President Trump still enjoys robust support among Republicans. 73 percent of Republicans say he should stay in the race. Again, keep in mind that this is a pre-assassination poll. Expect that number to rise in the next poll.
Second, a diminutive but significant portion of independents support Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the race. 51 percent of independents say Trump should drop out of the race, while 44 percent say he should stay in the race. This gives Trump’s campaign something to focus on; it would do well to look into why support for the former president is not higher among independents.
Third, 25 percent of Republicans think President Biden should stay in the race. That this number is not 100 percent is somewhat surprising, considering that Joe Biden is probably the weakest candidate in a frail Democratic field.
Fourth and finally, the majority of white and Hispanic Democrats believe Joe Biden should withdraw his candidacy, while the balance is fairly even among black Democrats.
This is just one poll, of course. A dataset largely collected before the assassination of former President Trump, which will be a game changer. But this poll is another drop in the bucket for Joe Biden; because his numbers are getting worse, the calls for his resignation are getting louder, which is making him furious and irrational, which is making his numbers even worse. It’s a vicious cycle that will almost certainly lead to a Democratic defeat in the 2024 presidential election.
