Former President Donald Trump has a six point lead over President Joe Biden, who many Democrats doubt is their best candidate to win in November, a CNN poll found Tuesday.
The poll is one of the first post-debate polls, following a CBS News and USA Today surveys, that Democrat operatives and donors will study to determine the total damage to Biden’s candidacy following his debate performance.
Trump’s lead over Biden is 49 percent to 43 percent, unchanged from April, the poll found.
While Trump continues to lead Biden nationally, he also leads all other potential Democrat candidates if Biden were to quit, as 72 percent of registered voters and 45 percent of Democrats wish.
Vice President Kamala Harris polls best (three points) against Trump, the poll found:
- Trump 49% Biden 43%
- Trump 47% Harris 45%
- Trump 48% Newsom 43%
- Trump 47% Buttigieg 43%
- Trump 47% Whitmer 42%
Political experts suggest that Democrats might be stuck with Biden for three reasons: the challenges of replacing Biden on 50 state ballots, the challenge of moving money behind a new candidate, and the challenge of finding a candidate who would likely be a sacrificial lamb to run in Biden’s place.
Not all Democrats believe Biden is their best chance of defeating Trump,as the poll also found:
However, most Democrats and Democratic-leaning registered voters (56%) say the party has a better shot at the presidency with someone other than Biden, while 43% say the party stands a better chance with him. Democratic confidence in Biden’s chances has not increased since he locked up the party’s nomination in the primaries: In January, 53% felt the party would have a better shot with someone other than Biden at the top of the ticket and 46% felt more confident with Biden.
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Biden’s approval rating in the poll has fallen to a new low among all Americans (36%), with 45% now saying they strongly disapprove of his performance, a new high in CNN’s polling.
Among the full US public, Biden’s favorability rating stands at just 34%, with 58% viewing him unfavorably. And while many of the Democratic names bandied about as possible replacements for Biden are less widely disliked, none would start with more public goodwill – instead, they are less well known. Harris has the widest recognition – and is also deeply underwater, with a 29% favorability rating, 49% rating her unfavorably, and 22% saying they have no opinion or haven’t heard of her. Roughly half of the public has no opinion on Buttigieg (50%) and Newsom (48%), with about two-thirds (69%) offering no opinion of Whitmer.
The poll sampled 1,274 Americans from June 28-30 with a 3.5 percentage point margin of error.
Biden vowed last week to drop out of the race, while his campaign cited internal polling as a reason Biden should remain in the race.
Seventy-two percent of registered voters believe, however, that Biden does not have the “mental” and “cognitive health” to serve as president, a CBS News/YouGov poll found Tuesday, up seven points after the debate.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
