Octogenarian president dropped more than 2 points in Pennsylvania, according to poll
A leaked poll from Democratic data firm OpenLabs shows support for President Joe Biden plunged in several swing states following the octogenarian’s dismal debate performance.
The poll, conducted in the first 72 hours after Thursday’s debate, now shows Biden trailing former president Donald Trump by 7.3 percentage points in Pennsylvania, a more than 2-point drop since the debate. The poll also shows Trump leading Biden by 10.1 percentage points in Georgia, 9.7 percentage points in Arizona, and 8.8 percentage points in Nevada.
Beyond those states, the poll suggests Trump could win states that were not expected to be competitive.
In Virginia, for example, Trump leads Biden by 0.6 percentage points, according to the poll. In Maine, Trump trails Biden by just 0.2 percentage points, a 2-point gain for the former president since the debate. Trump is also within 2 points in Colorado and 0.4 points in Minnesota, the poll shows. He leads Biden by nearly 3 points in New Hampshire, more than 4 points in Wisconsin, and nearly 7 points in Michigan, according to the poll.
Brutal swing state numbers for Biden in this leaked polling from @PeterHamby pic.twitter.com/4vlrqZrZv0
— Elliott Schwartz (@elliosch) July 2, 2024
The poll, which was first reported in Puck News, comes just one day after Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon met with the campaign’s National Finance Committee and dismissed concerns regarding the president’s debate performance.
“He’s probably in better health than most of us,” O’Malley Dillon told 500 party donors on a Zoom call Monday night, a comment some attendees deemed “offensive” and “dismissive.”
Just hours after the call, on Tuesday, Texas’s Lloyd Doggett became the first sitting House Democrat to call on Biden to withdraw from the race. The New York Times later reported that Biden’s debate prep, held at Camp David, “never started before 11 a.m.”
“Mr. Biden was given time for an afternoon nap each day, according to a person familiar with the process,” the report states.
White House spokesman and deputy assistant to the president Ian Sams dismissed the Times report during a Tuesday afternoon MSNBC appearance, saying, “When I deal with him, he’s sharp. He’s asking tough questions.”
