(The Center Square) – As President Joe Biden prepares to deliver his State of the Union Address Thursday night, two new polls show a majority of Americans think he is not mentally fit to be president and is too old.
Biden’s address to the nation comes just two days after his 2020 opponent, former President Donald Trump, dominated the Super Tuesday Republican primary elections, forcing his lone remaining challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, out of the GOP race.
Barring concerns about Biden’s mental capacity and Trump’s four separate criminal indictments preventing either from running, a rematch of the 2020 presidential election is all but assured.
A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that more than six in 10 voters are “not very or not at all confident in Biden’s mental capability to serve effectively as president,” the AP reported.
And a new poll from the New York Times-Siena College found that 73% of Americans say Biden is “too old to be an effective president.” Of those polled, 47% strongly agree that Biden is too old to be effective, while an additional 26% somewhat agree.
If Biden, 81, wins reelection in November, he would be 86 at the end of his second term.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice poll of more than 2,500 likely voters in November 2023 showed that 68% of Americans say there should be an age limit to run for president. The poll found that 38% of likely voters said the age limit should be somewhere in between 70 and 80 years of age, with only 3% putting the cutoff above 80 years old. A similar percentage, 39% of likely voters, said the age limit for those offices should be between 60 and 70 years old, as The Center Square previously reported.
Last month, a report from a special counsel investigating Biden’s handling and sharing of classified documents after he was vice president questioned Biden’s mental capacity.
The 388-page special counsel report highlighted Biden’s trouble remembering things, including the year his son died, as The Center Square previously reported.
“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,” according to the report. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’)”
During a hastily called news conference to address the concerns in the special counsel’s report, Biden made several gaffes while attempting to defend his cognitive abilities.
When responding to a reporter’s question about the Israel-Gaza conflict, Biden confused Egypt and Mexico. Biden also appeared to forget where he got a rosary that belonged to his deceased son after saying he carries it with him every day.
“In defending his mental sharpness, Biden just mixed up the presidents of Mexico and Egypt,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wrote online.
Biden has made numerous other gaffes in many other public appearances during his presidency.
The president is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address at 9 p.m. EST.
