Though President Joe Biden's cognitive and physical fitness for office has long been of concern to millions, new polling suggests that those worries have not abate – and have likely grown – as he pursues a second term in office, as the Washington Times reports.
The bad news for Biden came in a new NBC News survey released on Sunday, and it casts real doubt on whether sufficient segments of the electorate believe he has what it takes to serve another four years in the White House.
According to the poll, approximately two-thirds of participants evidence hesitation about Biden's capacity to undertake another term as commander in chief.
Specifically, 68% of respondents declared “major” or “moderate” concerns about Biden's fitness, with 32% stating that they harbored “minor” concerns or none at all.
Though Biden has had a lengthy history of seeming mental misfires, malapropisms, and unexplained gaffes, speculation about his cognitive and physical state has ramped up in recent weeks, largely due to an on-stage tumble at the Air Force Academy commencement and a bizarre remark at the end of speech in which he said, “God save the Queen.”
In the wake of the dire numbers yielded by the aforementioned survey, NBC's Chuck Todd questioned Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN) about the potential implications for the 2024 presidential race, as Newsweek notes.
During Klobuchar's Sunday appearance on Meet the Press, Todd raised the fact that, according to the survey, growing numbers of voters worry that Biden lacks the “necessary mental and physical health to be president.”
“The concern among Democrats [about Biden's condition] has doubled since 2020,” Todd began. “Do you have any concerns?”
Klobuchar responded succinctly, saying, “No, I don't.”
The Minnesota liberal continued, “Our party is united around him. Why? Because we work in a results-oriented business, and he has gotten results.”
Rising concerns among voters about Biden's ability to complete his current term, let alone tackle another one, have already been seized upon by multiple Republican primary contenders, with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who said recently, according to the Washington Examiner, "We are running against [Vice President] Kamala Harris. Make no bones about it.”
“Joe Biden is the oldest president in history,” Haley has also said, adding, “if he's reelected, we could end up with a President Harris,” aiming to capitalize on the vice president's continually low approval numbers, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently labeled “the best impeachment insurance” the sitting president could buy.
Haley was even more direct on the subject earlier this year when she opined, “I think we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris, because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely.”
While Haley's assessment of Biden's life expectancy may seem rude, if not outright morbid, it increasingly appears to be one shared by a growing number of voters, and that is a fact that the Democrat Party ignores at its peril.
