81st Birthday Poll: Voters Doubt Joe Biden’s Fitness for Office

Most voters have doubts about President Joe Biden’s fitness for office and believe he is exhibiting signs he is too old to be president, according to a Harvard-Harris poll published on Monday — Biden’s 81st birthday. 

The poll asked 2,851 registered voters from across the country, “Is Joe Biden mentally fit to serve as President of the United States or do you have doubts about his fitness for office?”

Of the respondents, 42 percent believe Biden “is mentally fit” for office, while 58 percent “have doubts about his fitness.” While the majority of Democrat poll participants, 71 percent, say he is mentally fit to serve, 81 percent of Republican respondents and 69 percent of third-party and unaffiliated voters have concerns about Biden’s fitness. 

Voters were also asked if they think Biden “is showing he is too old to be President or” if they “think he is showing he is fit to be president.”

Two in three voters say that Biden has shown he is too old to be president, while one in three say the opposite. The vast majority of GOP voters (89 percent) and independents (72 percent) say he is exhibiting signs he is too old for office. However, a majority — 63 percent — of Democrats say he has shown he is fit for office, while 37 percent of the demographic express concerns about his age. 

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Even more problematic for Biden is that nearly half of all voters say he is worsening as a president rather than improving. Conversely, just 28 percent say Biden is improving as his presidency goes on, and 23 percent say his performance as president is neither getting better nor worsening but staying the same. 

As was the trend in the previous two questions, a majority of independents (55 percent) join a majority of Republicans (73 percent) in saying that Biden is worsening as a president, while most Democrats (51 percent) perceive him as improving. 

The poll, which also shows Biden trailing former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head general election and in a crowded field, comes as worry mounts among Democrats about Biden’s prospects in a potential general election rematch with Trump, as Breitbart News’s Wendell Husebø noted Monday, citing a report from Politico. 

“Those close allies believe that Biden is mentally up for the job, but some acknowledge that the president can at times appear frail, according to two people involved in the conversations but not authorized to speak publicly about internal deliberations,” wrote Politico’s Elena Schneider, Holly Otterbein, and Jonathan Lemire on Sunday.

The poll was conducted on November 15 and 16, 2023, and a margin of error was not specified.