2 weeks Ago By The Independent
An increasing number of Americans say is — but not as many as when President Joe Biden faced similar concerns about his age over the summer. A new poll from YouGov found that 44 percent said Trump, at age 78, to lead the executive branch. That figure is up from 35 percent who said the same in a similar February survey.
Along the same lines, the number of people who said he’s not too old dropped from 53 percent in February to 46 percent in October. Those figures are compared to President , 81, who dropped out of the 2024 presidential campaign and endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. In a similar poll in February, 63 percent of respondents said Biden was too old to be president.
That figure jumped to 70 percent in July. That was the month when Biden announced he was not going to seek reelection and paved the way for Harris to secure the Democratic nomination. Trump’s age is now under scrutiny within the final days of the 2024 campaign as he heads into Election Day as the oldest person to secure a nomination from a major party.
Trump claimes he is in great mental shape, while his critics have pointed to his rambling rallies, nonsensical statements and on-stage dancing as signs of cognitive decline. At a rally last week, the 78-year-old Trump said he was “not that close to 80” as he “I have no cognitive,” Trump told moderator Sage Steele during a town hall gathering. “She may have a cognitive problem,” he added, referring to Harris.
“But, ,” he said. “It was nice that they actually said that, they said ,you know, if anyone has any questions, we were grilling this guy for two hours or two and a half hours and he’s got no cognitive.” Another YouGov poll also found that 56 percent of Americans believe that Trump’s age and health would have some impact on his ability to serve as commander-in-chief, according to One-third of respondents said that the former president would be “severely” handicapped by his age and health.
Harris, meanwhile, at 60 years old does not carry the same concerns as Trump. Roughly 62 percent of the YouGov poll believe that her age will not affect her ability to serve as president. Only 9 percent said it would have a “severe” impact.
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