Poll: Democratic-Leaning Voters Less Likely to Support Biden After Debate

A recent poll has found that voters who lean Democratic are now much less likely to support Joe Biden following his disastrous performance in his debate against former President Donald Trump on Thursday.

As Politico reports, the survey was conducted by Stan Greenberg, a former pollster for Bill Clinton. Participants were asked to fill out questionnaire forms both right before and right after the debate, as well as dial tests during the debate.

Prior to the debate, 65% of respondents said they would support Biden over Trump. But once the debate was over, Biden’s support decreased by three points, with 62% saying they’d probably still vote for Biden and 38% supporting Trump in a head-to-head matchup. Biden’s overall approval rating decreased by two points, primarily among Hispanic voters and third-party voters, while Trump’s approval rating rose by one point.

Once the debate was over, 54% of respondents said that they considered Biden to be the winner of the debate, while 46% said Trump won.

“President Biden was hurt badly by the debate, but Donald Trump didn’t benefit on any measure, except the vote,” the report summarized.

When Greenberg asked his focus group to describe Biden after the debate, some of the words that were used included “confused,” “frail,” and “dementia.”

Biden’s performance on Thursday has almost universally been declared the worst performance in the history of televised presidential debates. From early on in the debate and throughout the hour-and-a-half-long event, Biden spoke in a hoarse, raspy voice, repeatedly stammered and used incorrect words, and also had several moments where he completely froze up and said nothing for several seconds. Commentators also noticed the stark contrast between Trump and Biden on the split screen view, with Biden’s mouth almost always hanging open in a dazed and confused look. Biden’s performance led to a widespread renewal of calls for him to either step down voluntarily or be replaced as the nominee at the upcoming Democratic National Convention by another candidate.

The survey was conducted on June 27th, before and after the debate, by PSG Consulting, Democracy Corps, and Greenberg Research. The sample consisted of 374 registered voters located across the country. The poll also focused on several specifically recruited voter blocs, including black voters, Hispanic voters, young White voters, single White female voters, third-party voters, and “dual hater” voters who dislike both President Trump and Biden.