More than two-thirds of voters see President Biden and former President Trump as “embarrassing,” according to a new Pew Research Center poll released Thursday.
Among those surveyed, 63 percent described both presidential candidates as embarrassing; a substantial share of respondents — 37 percent of Biden supporters and 33 percent of Trump supporters — also said they were embarrassed by their party’s nominee.
However, the two candidates fared differently when voters were asked to assess their mental acuity. Less than a quarter of respondents — 24 percent — said that Biden could be described as “mentally sharp” while more than double — 48 percent — described Trump in this way.
Concerns over Biden’s age and whether he is up to serve another four years in office have intensified following his poor performance last month in the first presidential debate.
Though the White House and Biden have sought to dispel fears over the president’s mental fitness, a growing number of commentators and celebrities, many of which have been longtime Biden allies, have expressed concerns about the president’s physical and mental health.
Moreover, a growing number of Democrats have publicly called upon the president to suspend his bid with less than four months until the November election.
Several other descriptors were polled in the survey, with Biden leading Trump on empathy and honesty: 48 percent of voters saw Biden as either very or fairly honest compared to 36 percent who described Trump this way.
The former president was also deemed “mean spirited” by roughly twice as many voters compared to his Democratic opponent.
The survey was conducted among 9,424 adults between July 1 and 7, including 7,729 registered voters, all of whom are members of the American Trends Panel. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 9,424 respondents is plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.