Amid Debates Over Fitness for Office, 63% of Voters Find Biden and Trump Embarrassing

A majority of U.S. voters view both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, as "embarrassing" choices, according to a Pew Research Center survey published Thursday.

Not only do 63% of voters see both men as embarrassing, 37% of Biden supporters and 33% of Trump backers also said the same thing about their own preferred candidates. Nearly 9 in 10 respondents said the 2024 campaign "does not make them feel proud of the country."

The survey found that 44% of respondents support or "lean toward" Trump, while 40% back or lean toward Biden. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who switched from a Democratic to an Independent candidate, came in a distant—but significant—third with 15% of respondents supporting or leaning toward him.

The new poll comes as several of Biden's closest allies toldNBC News that "they now see his chances of winning as zero."

Furthermore, these people—including three who are "directly involved" in Biden's reelection effort—believe his candidacy will harm down-ticket Democratic candidates.

"He needs to drop out," one Biden campaign staffer told the outlet. Referring to the president's disastrous debate performance last month, the official added that "he will never recover from this."

Politicoreported that a Thursday meeting between top Biden advisers and Democratic senators meant to reassure nervous lawmakers "didn't work."

Speaking about Biden's campaign staff, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.)—who on Wednesday became the first Democratic member of the upper chamber to call on Biden to step aside—said: "I have great respect for their team. It doesn't change my point of view."

Reps. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Ed Case (D-Hawaii), and Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) on Thursday urged Biden to stand down, bringing the total number of U.S. lawmakers who have done so to 14.

"President Biden has served his country well, but for the sake of our democracy, he must pass the torch to a new candidate for the 2024 election," Scholten said on social media.

Politicoreported that other lawmakers are preparing to publicly call on Biden to drop out of the race. In a Thursday CNN interview, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a former Biden staffer from his Senate days, said that "hard, cold decisions" must be made about the president's candidacy, stopping just short of urging him to step down.

"I'm very concerned that Biden could lose," said Connolly. "Polling data is not encouraging right now, and I hope the White House takes that into account as well."

Some observers have criticized the U.S. corporate media for its heightened focus on Biden's age and mental fitness at the expense of Trump's recent felony conviction in a New York hush money case, his three pending federal and state criminal trials—two of them related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election—and his apparent lies about a far-right plot to ensure the federal government is stacked with Trump loyalists.

Guardian columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote this week that the "bigger story" is Trump's "appalling unfitness for office, not only because he tried to overturn a legitimate election and is a felon, out on bail and awaiting sentencing, but because of things he has said and done in very recent weeks."

"As just one example, he claimed that he doesn't know anything about Project 2025, the radical right-wing plan hatched by some of his closest allies to begin dismantling our democracy if he wins another term," she continued.

"All of these disturbing elements—the Democrats' dilemma, the media's failures, and the cult-like, unquestioning support of Trump—could add up to one likelihood in November," Sullivan added. "A win for Trump, and a terrible loss for democracy."

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Times editorial board wrote that Biden's debate performance "raised concerns about whether he can win in November, and prompted calls from prominent Democrats, columnists, and others for him to step aside."

"It's up to the Democratic Party to sort this out," the board said. "But it's time to refocus attention on the only candidate in the race who is patently unfit for office—any office—and an imminent threat to democracy: Donald Trump."

The editors continued:

It's unbelievable that the nation is spending so much time on the question of Biden's verbal acuity, when the greatest concern ought to be that his challenger is a self-aggrandizing felon and twice-impeached election-denier. Trump fomented the January 6 insurrection, shows contempt for the rule of law, and shamelessly lies in pursuit of more power. He's an authoritarian who admires murderous despots, wants to jail his political enemies, and has publicly flirted with declaring himself a dictator on his first day back in office.

"Leaders of the Democratic Party have to stop the self-defeating discussion about Biden's fitness and decide whether to replace him or unify behind him," the editors conclude. "And Americans must start hearing more about how the records, positions, and character of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and any of the prominent Democrats being floated as possible replacements make them all unquestionably superior to Trump."