New polling shows that VP Kamala Harris is soundly beating Trump on questions of physical and mental fitness to be president.
ABC News reported on the latest ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll:
Among all adults, Harris leads on two measures on which Biden lagged badly. Americans by a wide 56%-26% pick her over Trump as having the physical health to serve effectively as president, reversing Trump’s 31-point lead over Biden on this attribute last month. And Harris leads Trump by 9 percentage points in being seen as having the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively, erasing a 30-point Trump lead over Biden on this measure.
Harris also leads Trump by 15 points on honesty and trustworthiness and by 6 points in better-representing people’s personal values, both roughly matching Biden’s position before he left the race. And she leads Trump by 7 points in empathy — understanding the problems of people like you — an important gauge on which Biden and Trump were essentially even in July.
Video:
Kamala Harris is now crushing Trump on the questions of which candidate has the physical and mental sharpness to be president in the new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll. pic.twitter.com/fe8pEQe5y7
â Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 18, 2024
A sure omen that Republicans are in trouble is when they start pleading for their candidate to talk about the issues. The bad news for Republicans is that most voters don’t care about the issues. It wasn’t the issues that got Obama elected in 2008, Trump elected in 2016, or Biden elected in 2020.
Voters vote based on a desire for change. In all of the elections listed above, voters were unhappy and voted for change. VP Harris is viewed as the change candidate. Trump is viewed as old and physically and mentally declining. Trump represents the past.
The only reason that Trump was poised to beat Biden was because the age narrative stuck to President Biden and he couldn’t shake it.
Now, when voters look at Donald Trump, they see an old man who can’t match Harris’s physical and mental abilities. Next to Harris, Trump looks old and unfit.
Donald Trump can’t hide behind Biden anymore, and voters are seeing his own physical and mental decline.
It is helping Kamala Harris build her lead.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association