Trump takes 6-point lead over Biden nationally, gains significant ground with independent voters: WSJ poll

According to a new Wall Street Journal poll, Trump leads Biden 48 percent to 42 percent in a head-to-head match-up. This is a significant increase from a WSJ poll conducted in February that had Trump leading the Biden by two percent.

The new poll was conducted two days after the presidential debate in Atlanta. The percentage of voters who said Biden is too old to run for office rose by 7 percent, compared to the last poll, with 76 percent of Democrats thinking he is too old. About the same portion of Republicans hold the same view.

The debate increased the likelihood for one-third of voters to cast their ballot for Trump, including 31 percent of independents. A significantly lower proportion of voters, approximately 10 percent, indicated that the debate had increased their likelihood of supporting Biden, that included 9 percent of independents.

Additionally, 63 percent of voters said they view Biden unfavorably, and less than 40 percent approve of his handling of critical issues such as inflation, immigration, and the economy, per the poll. Two-thirds of Democrats said they would replace Biden on the ballot with a different nominee. President Biden's image appears to have been significantly impacted by the debate from last week, as evidenced by the poll. Biden exceeded the expectations of only 6 percent of those who watched the debate, in contrast to 46 percent of those who said the same about Trump.

When asked to select a single word or phrase to describe Biden's performance, over half of the respondents responded with terms such as "abysmal," "embarrassing,” or "confused. This is indicative of Biden's occasional difficulty recalling words and his halting presentation. Less than 10 percent of respondents expressed favorable sentiments.

The WSJ poll included 1,500 registered voters from June 29 to July 2. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. The joint survey was conducted by Democrat Mike Bocian of GBAO and Republican David Lee of Fabrizio Lee.