Three-quarters of voters, including half of Democrats, say they are concerned about President Joe Biden’s mental and physical health, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
This compares to 61% of voters who are concerned about the multiple criminal charges brought by former President Donald Trump and less than half of voters worry about their mental and physical health.
“I think (Biden’s) health and age prevent him from being a good president of the United States,” said a Democratic woman interviewed in Wisconsin, who said she voted for Biden in 2020. She has refused. to share his name.
The results are essentially unchanged from September, when the NBC News poll first asked about these concerns — and when more voters said they were concerned about Biden’s age (now 81) than of those who worried about Trump’s legal challenges. Trump is 77 years old.
Asked whether Trump had the mental and physical health to serve a second term as president, 48% of respondents said they had concerns.
“Four additional months of attention to Trump’s legal problems haven’t moved these numbers, with more focus on President Biden’s mental and physical health,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the investigation with Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt.
In the new poll, 76% of voters say they have major (62%) or moderate (14%) concerns that Biden does not have the mental and physical health needed to be president for a second term, compared to 24%. who have either minor concerns (13%) or no concerns (11%).
By party, 95% of Republican voters, 81% of independents and 54% of Democrats say they have major or moderate concerns about Biden’s fitness for a second term.
For comparison, 61% of all voters say they have major (51%) or moderate (10%) concerns that Trump faces multiple criminal and civil trials over allegations of wrongdoing, including criminal charges for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Thirty-nine percent say they have either minor concerns (11%) or no concerns (28%).
On this question, 95% of Democrats, 65% of independents and 27% of Republicans say they have major or moderate concerns about Trump’s criminal charges and legal challenges.
Horwitt, the Democratic pollster, said because more Democrats are worried about Biden’s age than Republicans are worried about Trump’s legal challenges, the concerns about Biden don’t appear to be the driving force your choice for the to the same degree as concerns about Trump.
“Yes, voters are more concerned about Biden’s age than Trump’s trials,” Horwitt said. “But Biden still gets 17% of the vote among voters who worry a lot about his age, while only 10% of voters who worry a lot about Trump’s trial are voting for him.”
Additionally, the NBC News poll found that a total of 59% of voters are concerned about Biden’s possible knowledge of or involvement in his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
The NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters — 867 contacted by cell phone — was conducted Jan. 26-30 and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.