A new poll of national voters shows that former President Donald Trump has increased his lead over President Joe Biden following the first presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, last week. The poll, which was conducted after Biden’s disastrous debate performance, shows the former president leading Biden 48% to 42% in a head-to-head contest.
According to the new Wall Street Journal poll, which included 1,500 registered voters, 42% of voters said they would vote for Trump compared to 36% of voters who said they would vote for Biden in a contest with independent candidates such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Asked to choose between only Trump and Biden, 41% of voters said they would definitely vote for Trump and roughly 6% said they would probably vote for the former president. On the other hand, only 36% of voters said they would definitely vote for Biden and roughly 6% said they would probably vote for Biden. The poll showed that Trump’s lead over Biden had increased nationally by 4% compared to a previous Wall Street Journal poll from February.
The new poll also showed that 80% of voters said Biden was too old to run for a second term as president. Compared to a previous Wall Street Journal poll, the percentage of voters who believe Biden is too old for a second term increased by roughly 7%.
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The national poll showed that the debate increased the likelihood of roughly a third of voters to vote for Trump, including 31% of independents, while the debate increased the likelihood of roughly 10% of voters to vote for Biden.
The poll also indicated that approximately two-thirds of Democrat voters surveyed would support replacing Biden on the 2024 ballot with an alternative Democratic nominee.
Asked to choose a word or phrase to describe Biden’s performance at last week’s debate, over half of those surveyed described it with terms such as “abysmal,” “horrible,” “disaster,” “pathetic,” “incoherent,” “weak,” and “scary.” On the other hand, less than 10 percent of voters described Biden’s performance with a positive word or phrase.
The Wall Street Journal’s poll was conducted from June 29 to July 2. According to the poll, the survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 2.5%.
