Fewer than one-third of Americans think 81-year-old Joe Biden still competent to ‘carry out job of president’: poll

President Biden is trailing former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election race, according to a new poll — which also shows growing concerns among voters about the Democratic incumbent’s abilities.

Trump, 77, leads Biden, 80, 44% to 42% in a head-to-head election match-up, the Yahoo News/YouGov poll released Wednesday shows. 

The survey also found that 54% say Biden, who turns 81 next week, no longer has “the competence to carry out the job of president,” up from 49% in February. 

Under a third of respondents, 31%, believe the president is still competent, the survey shows, a four-percentage point decrease from February. 

Concerns over Biden’s “health and mental acuity” have also risen, with 64% saying they are somewhat or very concerned about the matter. In June 2020, before Biden took office, fewer than half of Americans (48%) said they had the same level of worry about the candidate’s health and mental state. 

While Trump, the 2024 Republican primary front-runner, is only three-and-half years Biden’s junior, 38% say he is “fit to be president” while just 24% say the same of Biden. 

When voters were asked how big a concern Biden’s age is, 55% responded that it was a large problem, and a whopping 80% said it was at least a small problem. 

Americans are also far more aware of the president’s verbal and physical slips than his legislative accomplishments, the poll found. 

More voters have heard “a lot” about Biden “physically stumbling at public events” (47%); making “verbal gaffes” (41%) and “falling asleep at public events” (33%) than they have about Congress passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (20%) or Medicare being allowed to negotiate lower prescription drug prices under the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (23%). 

The poll comes the same week David Axelrod, one of former President Barack Obama’s top advisers, warned that Biden’s “age issue” was consistent in polling and the “one thing” his campaign wouldn’t be able to reverse. 

“The one number in the polling that was concerning, and in the CNN poll that followed after The New York Times poll, had to do with age, and that is one thing you can’t reverse no matter how effective Joe Biden is behind the scenes. In front of the camera, what he’s projecting is causing people concerns, and that is worrisome,” Axelrod said during an appearance on CNN Sunday. 

Axelrod was referencing a stunning New York Times/Siena College poll released last week that showed 71% of voters were worried about Biden’s age, while only 39% of voters thought Trump was too old for the job.

The poll also had Biden losing five key battleground states to Trump in a 2024 election matchup.