- President Biden wanted to use the debate to change the dynamics of the 2024 race.
- But his poor performance sent Democrats reeling and has opened him up to intraparty criticism.
- In the latest USA Today/Suffolk University poll, Trump boasted a 41%-38% advantage over Biden.
Weeks before the June presidential debate, the Biden campaign had sought to shake up the dynamics of the race, agreeing for the president to take the stage with former President Donald Trump.
Biden's team wanted the debate to crystallize what they've long argued: that the president was well-equipped to serve in a second term and would be the more effective leader on the world stage.
But the president's visible debate stumbles set his campaign back enormously in the eyes of top donors and even among some Democratic lawmakers, which in turn has so far deprived him a potential polling bounce that could have broken the deadlocked race.
Instead, two major national surveys released after the election showed Biden lagging behind Trump.
In a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll, Trump boasted a 41% to 38% lead over Biden among registered voters, still within the margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points.
However, a USA Today/Suffolk poll released in May showed both candidates tied, 37% to 37%.
In the latest survey, Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received the support of 8% of registered voters.
While the race remains close overall, Biden is still far behind Trump when it comes to enthusiasm, per the new USA Today/Suffolk survey.
Among Biden voters, 29% of respondents said they were "very excited" to vote for him, while 31% said they were "somewhat excited" to back him. A quarter (25%) of Biden voters said they were "not very excited" to support him.
When it came to Trump voters, 59% of respondents said they were "very excited" to support him, while an additional 23% said they were "somewhat excited" to back his candidacy. Only 11% of Trump voters said they were "not very excited" about his 2024 campaign.
The latest CNN poll, conducted across three days after the debate, showed Trump with a 49% to 43% lead over Biden.
Despite Democratic frustration over Biden's performance, the results reflected no change from CNN's April survey.
But there were some key nuggets in the latest CNN poll:
- Vice President Kamala Harris runs more competitively with Trump than Biden in a potential matchup should the president exit the race. Trump has a narrow two-point lead (47% to 45%) over Harris among registered voters in such a scenario.
- In a potential Harris-Trump matchup, the vice president wins 50% of female voters, compared to Biden's current 43% share against the former president.
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who have all been floated as potential Biden replacements — all trail Trump by single-digit margins in hypothetical matchups.