For the previous month first debateThe nation’s voters have repeatedly expressed doubts about whether President Biden has enough cognitive health to serve.
Today, those doubts are growing: now almost three quarters of the electorate, and now including many in their own party.
And today, after debate with former President Trump, more and more voters, including many Democrats, do not think Mr. Biden should be president at all. Nearly half of the party does not think it should be nominated now.
(Trump, for his part, fared better, but still got half of the voters who thought he had cognitive health to serve.)
The movement comes across partisan lines, but includes a second movement among Democrats, and a movement among independents.
So, now almost three out of four voters don’t think so either Mr. Biden must run for the president in the first place. That’s a higher sentiment than in February, when nearly two-thirds said they shouldn’t run.
Most voters who said he shouldn’t run said it was about his campaign and effectiveness in office, as well as his age.
But Democrats’ concerns, when expressed, lean more toward the strategic. He is more concerned about his ability to campaign than to make decisions as president.
Trump, by contrast, finds broad views among Republicans who he is must walk.
That’s because voters generally believe that in the debates, Trump presented his ideas more clearly, looked more presidential, inspired more confidence, explained his policies better and – quite simply – won the debates.
This is happening, even though most voters think Trump is dishonest.
And that’s relative, of course. Many voters think there is no good candidate.
The views are similar whether people watch live debates or just watch highlights or coverage of them, which is probably more common in how people get and process information in the modern age.
And Mr. Biden did not make significant inroads to convince voters that a second term would make him better off financially: Trump still looks better on this measure.
Nor does Mr. Biden consider himself better than Donald Trump at protecting democracy.
What now?
After the debate, some Democratic officials reportedly said Joe Biden should step aside as the nominee and give other Democrats a chance to become president in 2024.
The idea found resonance with nearly half of the state’s rank-and-file Democrats.
Related to perceptions of Mr. Biden’s health: Democrats who don’t think Mr. Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve are more likely to say he’s not a good candidate.
And the former’s numbers have increased among Democrats. (It’s also up among independents.)
The debate has brought the presidential race front and center to the minds of registered voters. Now 59% of registered voters say they think a lot about the presidential race, up from 48% just a few days ago. Interest has grown among Democrats and Republicans.
This CBS News/YouGov survey is based on a national sample of 1,130 registered voters contacted between June 28-29, 2024. All respondents participated in a previous national survey of 1,881 registered voters on June 17-21, 2024. The sample is weighted by gender, age, race , and education, based on the US Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as through voting and partisan identification and weighting to account for differential response rates. The margin of error for the sample of registered voters is ± 4.2 points.
Anthony Salvanto
