- The president announced he would end his re-election bid last month.
- And most voters now say the 81-year-old should step down as president.
Joe Biden may have ended his re-election bid, but nearly six in 10 voters believe he should go further and resign as president.
The 81-year-old bowed to pressure last month and stepped aside as a Democratic presidential candidate after enduring weeks of scrutiny following a disastrous debate performance.
Now voters are wondering whether he is fit enough to lead the country if he is not fit enough to run again.
A whopping 57 percent of likely voters surveyed by JL Partners said they believe the nation’s longest-serving president should resign now.
Those numbers include nearly half of Democrats, or 47 percent.
The White House has already dismissed calls for him to resign, calling them “ridiculous.”
Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said the president believed he could complete a second term and had no intention of leaving the White House early.
“And he wants to finish the job he started and deliver more historic results for the American people,” he told reporters at the White House shortly after Biden wrapped up his re-election campaign.
Still, questions about Biden’s age and suitability for office have dogged his three-and-a-half years in the White House.
They took on new urgency last month when he froze during his first campaign debate against Donald Trump on stage in Atlanta.
He would sometimes gape when his opponent spoke and seemed lost when answering questions.
The first to sound the alarm were donors, who openly questioned whether Biden was the best candidate to defeat Trump. They were soon followed by Democratic lawmakers, who feared that Biden’s weakness at the head of the ticket would cost them their seats in November.
With former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama apparently coordinating moves behind the scenes, Biden bowed to the inevitable after consulting with his closest advisers at his home in Delaware.
James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners, which conducted the poll, said the results showed Biden had lost authority with the American public.
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of the White House Creators Economy Conference, in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House on August 14.
The day before, he was at Tulane University to present his program ‘Cancer Moonshot’.
“His announcement that he is dropping out of the race appears to have confirmed to the general public that he is unfit for office, or to run again,” he said.
‘This puts us in totally unprecedented territory: the president, who relies on the popular authority of the office, has a majority of voters and a large portion of his own supporters who say he should resign.
“This is going to be a cause for concern in the White House in the coming months and with potential crises ahead. One thing is certain: there will be little room to leave a final legacy with a public that has stopped listening to Joe Biden.”
Republicans were quick to call for Biden to resign as president when he dropped out of the race.
“If Joe Biden is unfit to run for president, he’s unfit to serve as president,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, the top Republican in Congress.
But poll results show nearly half of Democrats and 52 percent of independents now share that view.
Biden, meanwhile, has signaled that he wants to move forward with the task of establishing his legacy.
On Tuesday, it highlighted $150 million in research awards to eight organizations as part of its “Cancer Moonshot” program.
Next week, she will address the Democratic Party convention in Chicago before handing the stage over to Kamala Harris.
His advisers say he will then turn his attention to distributing funding allocated in major legislation, shoring up alliances and making policy announcements.