Biden in Crisis

The political climate for President Biden is worse this morning than it was just a few days ago.

First, the polls: A New York Times/Siena College poll, released yesterday, shows that Biden is down six points against Donald Trump among likely voters — a three-point drop since his poor debate performance. Other polls show a similar, if slightly smaller, post-debate swing, with the trend against Biden and toward Trump.

Why? One reason is Biden’s age. In the Times poll, the share of voters who say Biden is “too old to be an effective president” rose to 74 percent from 69 percent and included a majority of Democrats. Four years ago, just 36 percent of voters said Biden was too old.

At the same time, more of Biden’s allies have turned against his re-election campaign. Yesterday, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona became the second House Democrat to publicly call on Biden to withdraw from the race. Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix and one of the biggest Democratic donors, called for Biden to make way for “a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous.” Other wealthy donors also believe Biden should step aside, but they have not said as much publicly, to avoid helping Trump.

Biden has taken notice. He has privately told allies that the next few days may determine whether he can salvage his candidacy, according to my colleague Katie Rogers, who covers the White House. He scheduled a rare interview with ABC News tomorrow and campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the coming days. He hopes to show that his debate performance was an anomaly, and that he is actually fit for the presidency.

As Katie wrote, Biden knows he is in the fight for his political life. But while he has defied the odds before, he might struggle to mount a comeback this time.