Trump and Biden considered 'mentally unfit' to be president by nearly 50% voters across 6 swing states: Poll
The race between them in the run-up to the November 3 election is heating up politically but in terms of their individuality, both President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden are facing the same question: Are they mentally fit enough to lead the nation for the next five years?
According to a new survey, almost an equal number of people in several battleground states feel that both Trump and Biden are mentally unfit to be the president. Both men are in their 70s and whoever wins the election will go on to become the oldest president the country has ever had when the inauguration day arrives on January 20. The current record is held by Trump who became the 45th president in 2017 at the age of 70-plus.
As per the CNBC/Change Research poll which was published on Thursday, September 10, while between 51 percent of the voters feel Trump is mentally unfit to become the commander-in-chief and 49 percent feel he is not, the percentage is 48-52 in the case of the former vice president.
The poll results that would not impress either of the two major parties came out following months of the president’s attack on Biden’s mental fitness. The GOP leader regularly targets the former veep as “Sleepy Joe” and mocked him for campaigning from his house basement and even wearing the mask often. His team has also tried to project the Democrat as a sorry figure time and again in campaign ads. Biden is known for his gaffes on television often and the Trump camp never loses an opportunity to attack him over those.
Biden has also at times returned the favor. He has said while the president talks about “cognitive ability”, he himself looks not cognitively aware enough of what’s going on. “He either reads and/or gets briefed on important issues, and he forgets it, or he doesn't think it's necessary that he needs to know it,” the 77-year-old said in the past. He also said in a recent interview with CNN: “'When it comes to Donald Trump versus me, just look at us, okay? Just look at us. Who seems to be in shape? Who's able to move around? I mean this idea of 'Slow Joe.' Anyway, I shouldn't laugh about it, because, anyway ... Donald Trump. Just look at us both.” Biden though indicated last December that he would become the president for one term if he won the election, he said last month that he was "absolutely" ready to serve two.
But voters in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida and Wisconsin have made the battle even.
In terms of physical fitness, the two men did better
The two men did better, however, when the voters were asked about their physical fitness. While 52 percent said Trump, 74, is physically capable to serve as the president, 54 percent said the same of Biden, a long-serving politician who was Barack Obama’s deputy for eight years (2009-17).
Trump mocked Biden earlier this week as the “worst presidential candidate” at a rally while calling him “slowest” in another gathering. But the president’s own health condition came under scrutiny last year when he made a sudden visit to Walter Reed medical facility and there was a rumor that he suffered “mini-strokes”. Trump vehemently denied the reports even though a book claimed that Vice President Mike Pence was kept on standby in case the president was incapacitated.
The poll surveyed 4,143 likely voters from September 4 and 6 and has a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points. The same survey also found that Biden was leading in all the six key states by narrow margins.