Former President Donald Trump has taken a slim lead over current President Joe Biden in the first national poll since their heated CNN debate, according to a Morning Consult survey released Monday. The poll shows Trump with 44% support compared to Biden’s 43%, marking a one-point lead for the presumptive Republican nominee.
The same poll had shown Biden leading Trump by one percentage point as recently as June 16, and both candidates tied last week prior to the debate on June 23. The relatively stable race suggests that Trump’s performance may not have surprised voters as much as it did corrupt Democrats in Washington.
However, concerns about President Biden’s mental and physical fitness following his debate with Trump have sharply increased among all voters. Only 37% of voters now believe the president is mentally fit for office, a significant decrease from Morning Consult’s pre-debate survey. This drop was driven primarily by Democratic voters, whose confidence in their party’s leader has decreased nine percentage points since before the debate.
Independent voters also slightly favor Trump over Biden (37% to 33%), and a higher percentage of those who supported Trump in 2020 are still backing him now compared to those who supported Biden (89% to 82%, respectively. Overall, only 5% of voters remain undecided and 8% indicate they plan to vote for another candidate.
Last week, President Biden appeared unsteady and at times incoherent during his first debate with Trump, causing alarm among Democratic donors and strategists. The president has since faced increasing calls to end his re-election bid due to his dismal performance. A separate Morning Consult post-debate poll of 2,086 voters found that 59% of independents and 47% of Democrats agree that Biden should be replaced as the party’s presidential candidate.
