Americans want a younger generation of lawmakers in Washington, polling data has indicated
Joe Biden delivers remarks during a joint news conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio following three-way talks at Camp David on August 18, 2023 in Camp David, Maryland © Getty Images / Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
US President Joe Biden’s advancing years are viewed by an overwhelming majority of Americans as a stumbling block to him securing a second term in the White House, according to a recent poll.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research study conducted this month found that some 77% of Americans believe Biden, who turns 81 in November, is too old to be a fully capable president should he be re-elected next year. This view is held by 89% of Republican respondents as well as 69% of Democrats, according to the poll.
“Biden just seems to be very compromised by age-related conditions,” Eric Dezenhall, a former staffer in Ronald Reagan’s White House, said via the Associated Press in comments published on Monday. “Even people who like him see him as being frail and not altogether ‘there.’”
Dezenhall added: “Whatever Trump’s negatives are, I don’t think most people see them as being disabled in an age-related way.”
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Around half of Americans, though, consider Trump’s age (77) as a negative factor to his own chances at regaining the US presidency according to the study. The results appear broadly reflective of US voter desires to seek a younger generation of lawmakers in Washington – with around two-thirds calling for age-limits for the office of president and members of Congress.
Similarly, 67% of respondents to the poll also support imposing mandatory retirement ages on Supreme Court justices.
“They’re too old overall,” Noah Burden, a 28-year-old communications professional told the AP, adding that veteran politicians on either side of the aisle represent “a sense of values and a sense of the country and the world that just isn’t accurate anymore.”
Additionally, the poll detailed that words such as “slow” and “confused” were frequently used by around 15% voters while describing Biden. The same number (15%) described Trump as “corrupt” and “crooked,” according to the poll of 1,165 adults conducted between August 10-14.
Trump currently holds a significant polling advantage in the race to secure the GOP nomination to challenge presumptive Democrat candidate Joe Biden in the US presidential election, scheduled for November 5, 2024.
