I&I/TIPP Poll: Just 42% Now Think Biden Is ‘Mentally Sharp’

Concerns about President Joe Biden’s mental abilities have gone mainstream.

Although the press has largely overlooked Biden’s gaffes, his disastrous performance at a decidedly friendly CNN townhall prompted the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that Biden’s “frequent public confusion about the major issues of the day is a reason for the growing public concern.”

Even the notoriously partisan "Saturday Night Live" has started to use Biden’s mental acuity as a punchline. One of the show's characters has quipped about how “insiders are also saying that, during meetings, President Biden repeatedly uses the f-word in conversation. More concerning, the f-word he keeps using is ‘forget.’”

Biden’s critics have long pointed to increased verbal gaffes, along with his advanced age (he turns 79 later this month) as problems. But the mainstream press has largely ignored signs of mental decline.

The latest I&I/TIPP poll shows that, despite this, the perception of Biden’s cognitive descent has become widespread.

The poll tried to gauge the public’s perceptions of Biden on several measures, including mental abilities, by asking a random sampling of adults to “indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with the following descriptions of President Joe Biden.” Among the choices given were “mentally sharp,” "energetic,” and “a good communicator.”

The results are not good for Biden.