Poll Finds 62% of New Yorkers Believe Biden is Unfit for Another Term

NEW YORK (New York Daily News/TNS) — New Yorkers are not loving the way the 2024 presidential race is shaping up, according to a Siena College poll published Tuesday.

Sixty-two percent of New York State voters said they do not think President Joe Biden, 80, is fit for another term in the White House, and 60% said the same about Donald Trump, according to the poll.

The survey represented yet another signal of widespread discontent about a potential rematch between Biden and the 77-year-old Trump, who is dominating the Republican presidential primary despite his legal woes.

The poll arrived with Biden in the city for the United Nations General Assembly, and after Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul ramped up their criticism of the White House’s handling of the city’s migrant crisis this summer.

But it was not all bad news for Biden: The Siena survey showed him holding a commanding 22-point lead over Trump statewide.

In a Siena poll last month, Biden’s lead in New York had slipped to 13 points. It was unclear why Biden bounced back, and polling data can be erratic.

In the 2020 election, Biden beat Trump by about 23 points in New York, where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 2 to 1.

Most voters in the deep-blue state said in the new Siena survey that they do not believe Trump should be allowed to run for president again due to the four indictments hanging over his head.

Biden, the 46th commander-in-chief, has decided to run for reelection despite concerns about his age shared widely among rank-and-file Democrats. Already the oldest president in U.S. history, Biden would be 86 by the end of the second four-year term.

In a news conference on Friday, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, brushed off concerns about Biden’s age.

“I can speak to his experience. I could speak to the wisdom that he has,” she said, pointing to job creation under Biden’s administration and an unemployment rate under 4%.

“What we’re going to focus on is how we’re going to continue to build on this president’s record,” Jean-Pierre added.

In a nationwide CBS News/YouGov poll conducted last week, only 34% of Americans said they expected Biden would complete a second term if reelected. Biden’s national approval rating is about 40%, according to FiveThirtyEight.

National polls show an extremely tight 2024 race between Biden and Trump. The CBS News survey showed Trump leading Biden 50% to 49%.