The news just keeps getting worse for President Joe Biden and his re-election bid.
Already facing an overwhelming majority of Americans who do not want to see him run again (including an alarming number of Democrats), the liberal incumbent is polling under former President Trump and other GOP presidential candidates, according to a new CNN poll.
The survey, conducted August 25-31, has Trump leading Biden by a percentage point, 47 percent to 46 percent, although that’s well within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.
Other Republican presidential hopefuls are outpacing Biden, too. Former Vice President Mike Pence is up 2 points, 46 percent to 44 percent. So is U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), 46 percent to 44 percent. So is former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, 44 percent to 42 percent.
The poll finds Biden tied with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — 47 percent to 47 percent. Biden edges out Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy at 46 percent to 45 percent, but again the numbers are within the margin of error.
Biden, however, is outside the margin in a hypothetical match-up with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who leads the Democratic Party’s standard bearer by 6 percentage points — 49 percent to 43 percent.
Haley’s campaign was quick to tout her showing in the CNN poll, asserting the latest numbers underscore the momentum the former South Carolina picked up in last month’s first GOP presidential primary debate.
“This poll confirms what many Democrats and Republicans are saying: Democrats are terrified of running against Nikki Haley,” Team Haley declared in a press release.
Biden is an extremely unpopular incumbent. Only 39 percent of respondents in the CNN poll said they approve of Biden’s job performance, while 61 percent disapprove. Biden’s numbers began falling two years ago amid a disastrous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, and they have stayed underwater ever since.
Let’s just say Biden isn’t inspiring a great deal of confidence. In fact, just 28 percent of CNN poll respondents say the Democrat inspires confidence. As high inflation continues to dog his administration, 58 percent of respondents say Biden’s policies have worsened U.S. economic conditions. Another 70 percent say things are going badly.
After recent high-profile gaffes, such as his odd trip to wildfire-devastated Hawaii, just 45 percent of CNN poll respondents say Biden cares about people like them. Only 26 percent believe Biden has the stamina or mental acuity to serve as president. Nearly three-quarters expressed serious concerns about the 80-year-old Biden’s age that it will negatively impact his future ability to serve.
More problematic for this unpopular president, 67 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters want the party to nominate someone else. Still, Dems seem to have resigned themselves to the fact that Biden is their guy, with two-thirds of poll respondents saying it’s very likely he will be the nominee.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to dominate the crowded GOP presidential field. The former president is supported by 52 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. He leads his closest competitor, DeSantis (18 percent), by 34 percentage points.
Haley and Pence are polling at 7 percent, with Ramaswamy at 6 percent support.
DeSantis has seen his support cut in half since CNN’s poll in early March, when the Florida governor was backed by 36 percent of registered Republican voters — just 4 points behind Trump. Pence and Haley have climbed a percentage point since March. Ramaswamy, who launched his campaign in February, wasn’t even noted in that March poll. He’s risen to third place nationally in the polls.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Joe Biden” by Joe Biden.
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