A new ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in the days after a special counsel’s report detailed President Biden’s lack of recall found that 86 percent of Americans believe he is too old to serve in office.
Biden, 81, is the oldest president to run for office. His likely GOP opponent in the 2024 election, former President Trump, is 77. The poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe both Biden and Trump are too old.
The poll was conducted in the two days after special counsel Robert Hur released his report on Biden’s handling of classified documents, in which the president was described as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.” The descriptions of Biden’s memory once again injected the issue of age into Biden’s reelection campaign.
Multiple national polls in recent months have indicated voters see Biden’s age as a major factor in his ability to serve. Sunday’s poll increased that percentage — in September, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 74 percent of Americans thought Biden was too old to serve another term as president, and 49 percent said the same about Trump.
Voters were more divided about whether Biden should have been charged with a crime for his handling of classified documents after he left office as vice president and as a senator, with 38 percent saying he should have been charged and 34 percent saying he should not have been charged.
When it comes to Trump’s legal troubles, the majority of Americans, 66 percent, think the former president should not be immune to criminal prosecution for actions he took while president. Trump’s legal team has been arguing that Trump should be immune to prosecution in his federal Jan. 6 case, which an appeals court last week disagreed with, sending the matter to the Supreme Court.
The ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted Feb. 9 to 10 based on a nationally representative probability sample of 528 adults aged 18 or older. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.