Things are growing more stark by the hour for President Joe Biden as a new poll has found that almost half of his own party's voters think he should step aside from his reelection efforts.
The poll from CBS News/YouGov was released on Sunday and asked voters about Biden being the nominee. It found that 45% of Democratic registered voters think Biden should let someone else be the nominee, while 55% said he should keep running.
The pollsters asked Democratic respondents if they thought Biden should be running for president, and while more than half (54%) said he should, the current number is 10 points lower from when the poll asked voters that question in February.
On the flip side, 46% said he should not be running, a number that has moved 10 points in the other direction since February.
The poll and speculation about Biden stepping down in lieu of another Democrat taking the reins has intensified since the president’s shaky performance in his debate with former President Donald Trump last Thursday.
But while some have called for the party to take action, the White House, Biden campaign, and several top Democrats in Congress have called for cooler heads.
Immediately after Thursday’s debate with former President Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris refused to accept CNN host Anderson Cooper’s thoughts on Biden’s performance, arguing that while he had a “slow start,” he also had a “strong finish.”
“I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three and a half years of performance,” she said.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) also backed Biden over the weekend, calling out his fellow party members who he thinks need to “chill the f— out.”
“I refuse to join the Democratic vultures on Biden’s shoulder after the debate. No one knows more than me that a rough debate is not the sum total of the person and their record,” Fetterman said in a post on X.
However, the poll found that 59% of Democrats thought Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president, a number that’s down from 71% when pollsters asked the question earlier in June.
This poll included responses from 1,130 registered voters from June 28 to 29. There is a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
