An overwhelming majority of Americans believe President Joe Biden is “too old” to serve another term following the release of a special counsel report that described him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” a Sunday poll found.
Special counsel Robert Hur’s report declined to pursue criminal charges against Biden in the classified documents investigation, but detailed how interviewers questioned the president’s mental capacity. An ABC News/Ipsos survey found that 86% of Americans believe Biden is “too old” ahead of the 2024 election, compared to 62% who said the same of former President Donald Trump.
Biden is already the oldest president in U.S. history, and would be 86-years-old by the end of a potential second term. While the former president is currently 77, only 3% of Americans viewed “only Trump” as “too old” for another term compared to 27% who said the same of Biden, according to the poll.
Most Americans view both men as “too old” for reelection at 59%, and 11% didn’t think either were, the poll found. (RELATED: Biden Camp Circles Wagons After Special Counsel Report Called Him ‘Elderly Man With A Poor Memory’)
Hur’s report found that the president willfully withheld classified documents from his time as vice president related to important national security matters. The special counsel recalled moments where Biden failed to remember when his son, Beau, passed away, as well as the duration of his vice presidency.
“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him-by then a former president well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,” the report reads.
‘Americans Don’t Agree’: NBC Host Pushes Back Against Biden Camp’s Defense Of President’s Mental Fitnesshttps://t.co/bk0AfujYrc
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 12, 2024
Biden held a press conference just hours after the report was released in an attempt to quell concerns over his mental fitness, during which he mixed up the leaders of Mexico and Egypt, and contradicted key components of the special counsel’s findings.
The White House pointed the Daily Caller News Foundation toward a Saturday memo which listed several individuals who have refuted concerns over Biden’s age and mental fitness, including the father of freed Hamas hostage Liat Beinin Atzili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, former House Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy and GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.
“President Biden’s experience, character, and drive have made him the most successful president in modern history, getting the country back on its feet after inheriting a nation in crisis and going on to achieve goals that eluded his predecessors for decades,” the memo reads. “And this undeniable record speaks to why it’s no surprise that Republican officials’ continue their desperate – and inadvertently self-undermining – age attacks after many years of failure: they’re afraid of Joe Biden.”
The president is currently trailing Trump, who is the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination, by roughly two points in the RealClearPolitics average for a potential 2024 head-to-head matchup. Trump is also leading Biden in several crucial battleground states, including Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Michigan.
The ABC News/Ipsos poll surveyed 528 adults nationwide from Feb. 9 to Feb. 10 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5%.
Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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