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CBS News Poll on 2024 Is Even More Telling With This Response to It

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  March 06, 2024 2:00 PM

As Guy covered over the weekend, there's a batch of polls that do not look good for President Joe Biden, including from CBS News. What else is new, right? But, as we get closer to the November election, polls continue to look bad for the current president against former and potentially future President Donald Trump. As Biden finds himself in a position, we've seen some curious things happen. Some leftist mainstream media outlets, like The New York Times, have even gone for accurate coverage of the unpopular incumbent. Now that Trump is indeed the presumptive nominee, we'll see how long that lasts. But there are still those on the left who can't get past how their fellow Americans might not be loving the direction that the country is going under Biden.

Immigration, as we've covered plenty of times before, has become a top issue, if not the top issue in polls. And that's bad for Biden. The economy remains a top issue, though. "CBS News poll finds voters remember Trump's economy as good, boosting Trump to national lead over Biden today," read the headline from CBS News' write-up. 

The poll shows Trump leading Biden 52-48 percent. "Voters recall the economy under Trump more fondly than they rate the economy now," the poll offered as a reason why. The poll results also revealed that 82 percent of voters are considering the economy to be a "major factor" when it comes to their vote. 

When asked to rate the economy from when Trump is in office to how it is currently, the results were telling. Sixty-five percent of voters rated it good while only 28 percent rated it as bad when Trump was in office. Just 38 percent currently rate it as good, while 59 percent say it's bad.

Another question on the economy had bad news for Biden as well, as a majority of voters, at 55 percent, said Biden's policies will make prices "go up." Just 17 percent think his policies will make prices "go down." It's especially telling that Biden's fellow Democrats aren't necessarily sold on his policies, as a plurality, at 44 percent, believe they will "have no effect."

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A plurality, at 44 percent, said Trump's policies will make prices "go down." A majority of Republicans, at 74 percent, and a plurality of Independents, at 42 percent, say so. 

That question caught the attention of John Harwood, formerly of CNN, as he shared that question in a post and noted it "would be nice if more Americans understood how things worked."

His disdain did not go unnoticed, as there's been over 2,400 replies in response to his post. 

Plenty of Harwood's other reposts have shared similar sentiments on the economy, while also demonizing Trump even more so now after he's become the presumptive nominee with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley exiting the race. 

As we covered in a previous VIP piece from last month, Biden's numbers on the economy have been going up slightly in the polls, but that's not saying much, especially when they're still bad as Americans are still hurting and Trump's numbers are so much better. 

The poll had other bad news for Biden as well. Voters don't like him, and even his fellow Democrats aren't too excited about voting for him so much as they are about voting against Trump. Among likely Biden voters, a plurality, at 47 percent said they're doing so "Mainly to oppose Donald Trump." That includes a slim plurality of Democratic voters, at 37 percent, while 35 percent of them say "Mainly because I like Joe Biden."

While this may be a warning sign for Trump, the election is still almost eight months away. Trump has time to win them over. Those who are likely to vote for Trump do like him. Fifty-one percent say their main motivation for voting for Trump is "Mainly because I like Donald Trump."

Voters are evenly split as to if Biden has a vision of where he wants to lead the country, at 50 percent. Meanwhile, 63 percent of voters say that Trump does have a vision. 

Trump also fares much better in the poll when it comes to how voters regard their mental and physical age. 

Even when voters voters were given the chance to say "neither" was "physically healthy enough" or "has the mental and cognitive health" to serve as president, pluralities still expressed their support for Trump. 

A plurality, at 45 percent, said only Trump is physically healthy enough, while a similar plurality, at 46 percent, said he has the mental health. 

Another warning we've heard quite a bit is how Biden is hurting among his fellow Democrats, and key voting blocs that tend to vote Democratic. "Some of Mr. Biden's polling deficits come from his own Democratic base being relatively more critical of him. Twice as many Democrats call Mr. Biden's presidency fair or poor than Republicans describe Trump's presidency that way," the poll's write-up noted. 

The poll's results were also discussed on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, with an emphasis on the economy. Host Margaret Brennan seemed focused on wondering why Biden wasn't getting more of a boost.

"So our polling has shown perceptions of the economy have been improving, so why isn't that helping Joe Biden," she asked Anthony Salvanto, the executive director of elections and surveys. 

"Because it's the comparison that people are making between how they rate the economy today and what they remember it being during the Trump years," he pointed out, offering "the remembering is the key word there," especially since people rated the economy good in 2018 and 2019 but had negative views after the COVID lockdowns. 

"So it's that comparison that isn't holding up for the White House, number one. And then, number two, you push that forward and ask, well, whose policies might make prices go down, and there's a lot of Republicans who think that prices will go down if Donald Trump gets elected," he also shared, speaking especially to responses about the effects policies will have on prices. "But what's troubling for Joe Biden is that you still get him associated with price increases, because a lot of people think that prices would continue to go up under his policies. That's why," Salvanto added.

Salvanto also mentioned how Biden's numbers are lower because of "Democrats being less likely to say that they will definitely vote," adding "campaign has work to do to drive up that motivation" and warning "he's not doing as well as he did in 2020 with some key Democratic groups.

He also stressed an "important" takeaway in how Trump is leading when it comes to who has a vision, with Salvanto adding "that speaks across party lines in many ways. And what I think is important there is that these are uncertain times in the minds of many voters." He said it's "a key gap that I'm going to watch over the next few months."

As Haley's exit from the race makes the rematch from 2020 all the more inevitable, there are some who complain that it's a race nobody wanted. Voters were asked to select how they feel about a Trump-Biden rematch, with the most likely answers being "negative" and "depressing," at 48 percent an 42 percent, respectively. 

That sentiment could have been avoided, though, had more people voted for Trump in 2020. Instead, we have to wait until 2028 for the open primaries we could have had this time around had Trump won reelection and been term limited. The views in hindsight are thus even more telling. 

When it comes to the rematch we do have, though, it would be wise for Republicans to keep in mind what issues to focus on. And those experiencing that strong sense of buyer's remorse, who Harwood and his ilk mock, will be the voters to also keep in mind as they could bring Trump over the finish line. 

The poll was conducted February 28-March 1 with 2,159 U.S. adult residents with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.