Trump widens lead on Biden after debate in highly anticipated poll
Former President Trump has expanded his lead over President Biden in the aftermath of last week's debate to 6 points, up from 3 just a week prior, according to a much-anticipated New York Times/Siena College poll.
The poll showed Trump leading Biden with 49 percent to the incumbent’s 43 percent among likely voters, holding the largest lead he has had in a Times/Siena poll since 2015, when he first ran for president. Among registered voters, Trump’s lead expands to 8 points, 49 percent to 41 percent.
The results come as Biden's campaign is trying to regroup following last week's disastrous debate performance that raised alarms among Democrats about whether Biden is capable of defeating Trump and serving another term as president.
The debate was still less than a week ago, but early polling coming out immediately following the debate has mostly shown Trump either maintaining his lead over Biden or growing it slightly. The Times result with likely and registered each are a 3-point swing in favor of Trump compared to before the debate.
Dogged by concerns that he is not up to the job, Biden had a chance at the debate to demonstrate his vitality despite his age and questions about his fitness for office. But he turned in a lackluster performance in which he at times stumbled over his words, showed low energy and struggled to make clear statements in response to some questions.
The poll showed an uptick in the percentage of voters concerned about his age. Pollsters found 74 percent say he's too old to serve as president, an increase of 5 points from before the debate.
That includes 59 percent of Democrats, up 8 points, and 79 percent of independents.
The debate and the aftermath, including some of the polls that have come out, have spurred calls among some Democrats to replace Biden as the nominee to face Trump in November.
But the poll actually did not show a major increase in the percentage who want Biden to be replaced. Among Democrats, the percentage who want a different nominee increased 2 points to 47 percent, while the percentage who want Biden dropped 4 points to 48 percent.
Independents remained basically the same, still at 72 percent who want a different nominee and about 20 percent who want Biden.
Update: 2:12 p.m. ET