Hill Street Studios/Getty Images; Insider
The majority of American adults say Biden and Trump are too old to serve in public office right now, according to a new poll.
But respondents were more likely to say Biden was too old to serve.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say Rep. Liz Cheney is “the right age” to serve.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are only about four years apart in age.
But more American adults feel that Biden is too old to serve than Trump, according to a new Insider/Morning Consult poll.
Seventy-six percent of the more than 2,200 people surveyed in early September felt that Biden, 79, was “too old” to serve in public office right now, while 57% said the same about Trump, 76.
While the Founding Fathers set an age minimum for US presidents — the president must be at least 35 years old — an age maximum doesn’t exist. That means both Biden and Trump would be serving in office well into their 80s if elected for a second term in 2024, a feat no US president has ever achieved. And if Trump were to win the election, upon swearing in, he would be the same age Biden is now — an age many Republicans consider too old.
One reason why more American adults consider Biden “too old”: the coalition that supports Biden is much younger than the coalition that supports Donald Trump, said Cameron Easley, managing editor at Morning Consult. A lot of these young voters, he told Insider, didn’t have Biden as their first choice in 2020. Rather, their vote was more a vote against Trump than for Biden.
“The Biden administration has really been responsive to the concerns of younger voters wherever they had any influence that they could,” he said. “But even despite that, I think it’s clear that younger voters have been more likely to lose faith with the Biden administration early on, and less likely to enthusiastically approve his job performance.”
A majority of survey respondents said other prominent politicians are too old to serve in public office, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (62%) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (54%).
Both politicians are octogenarians, while the median age of an American is about 38 years old.
Pelosi, 82, earlier this month refused to answer Insider’s question on whether she would seek another term as speaker of the House if Democrats retained the chamber.
Republicans and Democrats were split along party lines over whether certain politicians were “too young,” “the right age,” or “too old” to serve in public office.
While about one in four of Democrats said Biden is “the right age” to serve, just about 1 in 17 Republicans said the same.
Fewer than one in 10 Democrats said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is “too young” to serve in public office compared to nearly four in 10 of Republicans.
Rep. Liz Cheney, however, is an exception.
Thirty-nine percent of Republicans said she is “the right age” to serve compared to 55% of Democrats. Perhaps the most prominent anti-Trumper in the GOP, Cheney, who is actively considering a 2024 presidential bid, is at war with many of her GOP colleagues as she serves as vice chair of the US House’s January 6 select committee.
The Insider/Morning Consult poll was conducted from September 8 through September 10, had 2,210 respondents and a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points.