Americans concerned about Trump problems and Biden’s age for presidency

The Americans They actually agree on something in this time of stark discord in the country: Joe Biden he is too old to be an effective second-term president. donald trumpwho is only a few years his junior, raises less concern about his age.

But the public does have plenty of other problems with Trump, who, for now at least, is leading his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination despite facing multiple criminal charges. It doesn’t matter that his age is also advanced; In any case, some say, the 77-year-old politician should mature.

A new poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that much of the public was unusually in agreement on the one characteristic that Biden cannot change.

The president has taken to raising the question of age himself, jokingly, as if trying to relax his audience on the subject of his 80 years.

Age discrimination may be prohibited in the workplace, but the president’s employers—the people of the United States—have no qualms about showing their bias.

In the survey, the 77% he said Biden is too old to be effective for four more years. not only the 89% of Republicans say that, but also think so 69% of the democrats. That point of view is held in various age groups, not just among young people, although older Democrats specifically are more favorable to his aspirations to be re-elected in 2024.

By contrast, about half of adults in the United States say Trump is too old for the job, and here the familiar partisan divide is visible: Democrats are much more likely to disqualify Trump because of his age than Republicans.

What is clear from the poll is that Americans want the old politicians off the stage and the young ones on, or at least younger than these two candidates.

Democrats, Republicans and independents want to use a broad broom to sweep the halls of power, imposing age limits for the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court. In total, about two-thirds of American adults support an age cap for presidential and congressional candidates and a mandatory retirement age for judges.

Specifically, the 67% are in favor of requiring Supreme Court justices to retire at a certain age, the 68% support instituting age limits for the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the 66% support doing the same for presidential candidates.

Since most of the politicians are elderly and changes to the Constitution would be required, it is not expected that these changes will be achieved promptly.

Still, the poll suggests that many people of various political persuasions are open to a younger, or newer face, or both, capturing the public’s imagination.

The survey of 1,165 adults was conducted August 10-14, 2023, using a probability-based sample drawn from NORC’s AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the United States population. The sampling margin of error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Source: AP