More than 70 percent of voters believe President Biden does not have the mental health to serve a second term as president, a notable increase from previous polls after a poor debate performance last week.
The CBS News poll published Sunday found that 72 percent of respondents don’t believe Biden’s health is adequate to serve as president, while just 27 percent believe it is. That’s a noted increase from a poll last month, when 65 percent of respondents said Biden wasn’t healthy enough, to 35 percent saying he was.
Biden’s first debate performance raised alarms with some Democrats and supporters. The president, at times, showed difficulty stringing ideas together and overall appeared tired. A rising number of Democratic voters, including some unnamed lawmakers, have called on Biden to step aside and allow a different candidate to take the party’s nomination.
The poll also found that just 28 percent of voters believe Biden should be running for a second term at all, another significant drop from a February poll’s 37 percent figure. Among Democrats, only 54 percent said Biden should be running again, a drop from 64 percent in February.
Of those who said Biden should not be running again, 86 percent of respondents cited Biden’s age.
Overall, 45 percent of Democrats said Biden should step aside and not accept the party’s nomination, while 55 percent said he should continue his reelection campaign.
Looking back at the debate, few said Biden presented his ideas clearly (21 percent) or inspired confidence (18 percent), while former President Trump scored much higher on those same factors. About 47 percent of respondents said Trump presented his ideas clearly, and about 44 percent said he inspired confidence.
Despite the poor showing for Biden, more respondents said he was telling the truth at the debate (40 percent) than Trump (32 percent).
The CBS News/YouGov poll surveyed about 1,100 registered voters from June 28 to 29, with a margin of error of about 4.2 percent.