Sixty percent of registered voters are very or fairly concerned about Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden’s age, compared to only 45% who say the same about President Donald Trump, according to a Washington Examiner/YouGov poll released on Wednesday.
Trump, who is 74, has raised during the campaign the issue of memory lapses and verbal gaffes made by Biden, who is 77, in making the case that the Democrat candidate is not mentally equipped for the presidency.
In one of the latest examples, Biden earlier this week referred to 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as “the senator who was a Mormon… the governor, OK?”
Romney currently serves as U.S. senator from Utah and was previously governor of Massachusetts.
When Trump won four years ago, he broke broke Ronald Reagan’s record as the oldest man first elected president. If Biden is elected, he would be older at his inauguration than Reagan was when he finished his two terms.
Other results from the survey include:
- Democrats are more worried about Biden’s age than Republicans are about Trump’s: 38% of Democrats and 86% of Republicans are concerned that Biden might be too old, while 61% of Democrats and 26% of Republicans say the same about Trump.
- Among independents, 61% have concerns about Biden’s age, while only 41% are worried about Trump’s age.
- Forty percent of voters think Trump looks weaker after his treatment for the coronavirus, while 24% say he looks energized, and 28% say neither. Independents are split between 39% weakened and 33% who say neither.
- By a 20-point margin, 56% to 36%, voters said Vice President Mike Pence is prepared for the presidency.
- Voters were less sure of Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, with 49% seeing her as prepared and 44% saying she is not.
The poll was conducted among 1,195 registered voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.