1 in 3 Democrats say Biden should step aside: Poll

Miranda Nazzaro
·2-min read

Nearly a third of Democrats believe President Biden should end his reelection bid following his lackluster debate performance against former President Trump last week, according to a new poll.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll, published Tuesday, found 32 percent of Democrats think Biden should give up his reelection bid just days after he squared off against Trump in the first debate of the 2024 general election season last week.

During the 90-minute debate, Biden appeared to stumble over his words and lose his train of thought, while his delivery frequently halted.

The performance sparked immediate panic from some within the Democratic Party, who expressed concerns over Biden’s ability to beat Trump in November and carry out another four-year term.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, however, suggested Biden may not have lost ground since the debate, with both him and Trump maintaining the support of 40 percent of registered voters, Reuters reported.

When pollsters presented a series of names of top Democrats as potential replacements should Biden step aside, only former first lady Michelle Obama outmatched Biden, leading Trump 50 percent to 39 percent in a hypothetical match-up, per Reuters. The former first lady has repeatedly said she is not eying a presidential bid.

Vice President Harris, meanwhile, fell behind Trump by 1 point, 42 percent support to 43 percent, a difference that fell within the poll’s 3.5 percentage point margin of error. Reuters noted Harris’s numbers were statistically as strong as Biden’s.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another floated replacement, trailed Trump by 3 points, 39 percent support to 42 percent, while Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer fell behind Trump 36 percent support to 41 percent.

Biden has already won the primaries, winning a majority of delegates, and thus he cannot be simply overthrown at the Democratic National Convention in August. The decision is ultimately up to him, and the Biden campaign said last week he is not going anywhere.

Democratic National Committee (DNC) rules require delegates that Biden won to pledge their support for his nomination unless Biden willingly decides to stand down. Before the convention opens on Aug. 19, the DNC could change the rules to block Biden, which is highly unlikely given current party dynamics.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online July 1-2 and surveyed 1,070 U.S. adults nationwide. It has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, per Reuters.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • Labour tipped to oust Tories as campaigning ends in UK election

    Britain's political leaders made a frantic push for votes late Wednesday in the last hours of an election campaign expected to return a Labour government after 14 years of Conservative rule.The vote is Britain's first July election since 1945, when Labour under Clement Attlee defeated the Conservatives of World War II leader Winston Churchill, ushering in a period of transformational social change.

  • The world must prepare for President Michelle Obama

    The 2024 US Presidential race intensifies. Speculation abounds over potential replacements for President Joe Biden amid increasing pressure from his party and the media to step aside after a jaw-dropping, catastrophic debate against Donald Trump last week. Among the names circulating, a game-changer is emerging: Michelle Obama. Could this be America’s worst nightmare?

  • PKR-linked think-tank says Sungai Bakap race too close to call

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 — Pakatan Harapan’s Joohari Ariffin could win the Sungai Bakap by-election in Penang tomorrow if hi...

  • When Ms ‘Malaysia’ visits Malaysia: American tourist gets warm welcome from locals awed by unique name (VIDEO)

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 — An American tourist decided to visit Malaysia for a special reason: Malaysia also happens to be h...

  • Voices: Tory downfall: The 9 reasons it has all gone wrong for Rishi Sunak

    A series of world events, poor decisions and fatal gaffes conspired to see Rishi Sunak lead the Tories to the worst electoral defeat in his party’s 346-year history

  • Beijing is laughing at the West’s weakness

    Russian aggression in Ukraine poses a threat to world peace and stability. China provides material support for Russia’s actions. All this is entirely clear. In Beijing, immediately after a meeting with Xi Jinping in April this year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support”. This included selling huge quantities of machine tools and micro-electronics that would be used in the Russian defence industry.

  • What you should know about: Malaysia’s proposed ‘lemon law’ for cars

    Malaysia is proposing a so-called “lemon law” that would provide vehicle buyers in the country more protection against f...

  • The Head of NASA Is Being Awfully Catty About China's Amazing New Moon Samples

    China recently became the first country to ever return samples taken from the far side of the Moon, a historic mission that could have profound implications on our understanding of its evolution and ability to host human life. But thanks to a law called the Wolf Amendment, which was enacted by the US government in […]

  • 'I Am Sorry': Rishi Sunak Apologises To The Nation As He Quits As Prime Minister

    The Tory leader led the Tories to their worst ever performance at the ballot box.

  • Tory infighting begins as Rishi Sunak leads party to record-breaking defeat

    Jacob Rees-Mogg, Grant Shapps and Suella Braverman are among senior Tories with scathing assessments of party leadership

  • Here’s what would happen if Biden were to drop out of the presidential race

    CNN’s Brian Todd explains the process for picking a new Democratic presidential nominee, should President Biden decide to end his bid for reelection

  • Zelensky U-turns as he invites Russia to attend peace summit without giving up land

    Volodymyr Zelensky has invited Russia to the next peace summit despite previously saying it could only join if it relinquished land in Ukraine.

  • Goodbye, Galloway. This was a triumph for Israel

    British politics has hardly covered itself in glory in recent years. After the shame of the Corbyn years was punctured by the glorious Tory victory of 2019, we were subjected to a veritable gallery of disgrace: soaring immigration, Covid authoritarianism, Partygate, the Truss-Kwarteng interregnum, Gaza fanaticism. But the true nadir was the election of George Galloway in Rochdale.

  • 9 out of 10 voters say there are important differences between Biden and Trump. Here’s what they see as the biggest ones

    If there’s one thing that American voters overwhelmingly agree on, it’s that this year’s presidential election presents a stark choice. In the latest CNN poll by SSRS, 91% of registered voters say they see important differences between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, dwarfing even the 77% of voters who said last fall that there were significant divides between the Democratic and Republican parties. Even among the so-called “double haters” – those with unfavorable views of

  • Ukraine is killing Russian missiles with hand-me-down air-defense weapons the US retired decades ago

    The MIM-23 HAWK surface-to-air system was first fielded in the 1960s and has long been considered obsolete, with militaries favoring other weapons.

  • Lebanon's Hezbollah rains 200 rockets on Israel as Gaza war rages

    Lebanon's Hezbollah launched more than 200 rockets and drones at Israeli army positions on Thursday, escalating tensions between the two adversaries amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.After months of deadlocked Gaza ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he agreed to send a delegation for talks aimed at securing the release of hostages seized in Hamas's October 7 attack that sparked the war.The announcement, which came a day after Hamas said it had "ideas" on halting the nearly nine-month conflict, followed a phone call between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden."The leaders discussed the recent response received from Hamas" and "the President welcomed the Prime Minister's decision to authorise his negotiators to engage with US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators in an effort to close out the deal," the White House said.Israel launched a military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, in response to an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist militant group on its territory.The next day Hezbollah, in support of its ally Hamas, opened a front on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, and the two sides have since exchanged near-daily cross-border fire.Hezbollah said it fired more than 200 rockets and "explosive drones" at army positions in northern Israel and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed one of the Iran-backed group's commanders.Air raid sirens blared across northern Israel in the morning, and an AFP correspondent witnessed rockets crossing the frontier that were mostly intercepted by Israeli air defences but sparked wildfires.A military source said later a soldier was killed by a rocket fired into northern Israel.- Fighting in Gaza City -The Gaza war broke out after Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.In response, Netanyahu vowed to "crush" Hamas and Israel's military launched an offensive that has killed at least 38,011 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.Gaza's civil defence agency said seven people were killed Thursday in Israeli strikes, including five in a school in Gaza City, in the north of the besieged territory.Fighting raged in the city's Shujaiya neighbourhood and in Rafah, on the southern border with Egypt, where an Israeli evacuation order raised fears of a major new offensive.Since the order was issued on Monday, tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled eastern areas of Rafah and nearby Khan Yunis.The United Nations says 1.9 million people are thought to be displaced in Gaza, and that around nine in every 10 people in the territory have been uprooted at least once since the war broke out."Behind these numbers, there are people... that have fears and grievances. And they had probably dreams and hopes; the less and less, I fear today, unfortunately," said Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN humanitarian office in the Palestinian territories."People who in the last nine months have been moved around like pawns in a board game."- Evacuation order -The United Nations says up to 250,000 people were affected by Israel's order to evacuate 117 square kilometres (45 square miles) -- equivalent to one-third of Gaza's territory.The Israel-Hezbollah border clashes have killed at least 496 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 95 civilians, according to an AFP tally.Israeli authorities say at least 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed on their side of the UN-patrolled border.The Gaza war at the heart of the violence has meanwhile raged on, with gun battles, air strikes and shelling rocking Gaza City for an eight straight day.Israeli troops "destroyed tunnel routes in the area and eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat with tank fire, and in aerial strikes," the military said.- 'Maelstrom of human misery' -Israel has faced an international outcry over the soaring civilian death toll, punishing siege and mass destruction in Gaza.The UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, this week called for an end to the "maelstrom of human misery".Netanyahu has insisted Israel will destroy Hamas and bring home the remaining hostages.Biden, under growing domestic pressure over Washington's support for Israel, in late May outlined a roadmap for a six-week truce and exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.There has been little progress since, but Hamas said Wednesday it was communicating with officials in Qatar and Egypt as well as Turkey with an eye to ending the conflict.Hamas said its Qatar-based political chief Ismail Haniyeh had "made contact with the mediator brothers in Qatar and Egypt about the ideas that the movement is discussing with them with the aim of reaching an agreement".Netanyahu's office said Wednesday that "Israel is evaluating the (Hamas) remarks and will convey its reply to the mediators".The main stumbling block so far has been Hamas's demand for a permanent end to the fighting, which Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners strongly reject.burs-dv/kir

  • Starmer will become new PM as Labour landslide wipes out Tories

    Sir Keir Starmer will become the prime minister after Labour won the general election with a landslide and the Tories suffered a historic wipeout.

  • Disney heiress vows to stop Democratic donations until Biden stands aside

    Abigail Disney, a long-standing donor to the Democrats, warned that the GOP would win in November if a change of leadership was not made

  • Ukraine’s new F-16 fighter jets will be destroyed as soon as they arrive

    In a brutal and terrifying three days, Russia has wreaked havoc on the tiny, battered Ukrainian air force – lofting drones to surveil the air force’s front-line airfields and then firing ballistic missiles to destroy hard-to-replace warplanes.

  • Russia is using devastating 'meat assault' attacks to find out where Ukraine's firepower is hidden: report

    Russia is throwing troops into high-casualty attacks for marginal tactical gains.