As questions loom over his fitness for office, local experts weigh in on Joe Biden’s re-election bid

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – President Joe Biden is trying to shore up support for his re-election campaign as he faces calls from within his own party to get out of the race.

President Biden met with every Democratic governor in the country on Wednesday night, including Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, to reassure them of his commitment and fitness for four more years of the presidency. This comes after Biden struggled in a debate against former President Trump on Thursday – causing some to call from him to remove himself from the election.

The latest polling data from CBS News shows Biden now trails Trump by three points in battleground states and by two points overall.

“If I had to say last week, there was like a 25% chance that the President leaves the ticket,” said Jason Grill, a local political analyst and former Missouri State Legislator. “Now? I think it’s more like 50%.”

“Polls this far outside the election are pretty mobile,” said Debra Leiter, a professor of political science at UMKC. “This may be the start of the low point that sinks even further for Joe Biden. This may also be the low point that reverts back to a higher point. A lot of the campaign is still to be run.”

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The election is a little more than four months away, giving the Democratic party little time to pivot if Biden is pressured to remove himself from the ticket. According to Reuters polling, one in three democrats think Biden should end his bid for office.

“There are a number of high-profile, well-known Democratic candidates, but none of them are as well-known as Joe Biden,” Leiter said. “None of them have gone through the vetting process, but also that familiarization process that primaries bring. I do think that voters are going to be dissatisfied if they didn’t have a chance to choose who that candidate would be.”

The questions around Biden have created uncertainty around the Democratic ticket. Experts told KCTV5 a resolution to the situation could come in a few weeks, but no firm timetable has been set.

“We should know something this month. Middle of the month I would hope,” Grill said. “More and more people I know want something different, but I don’t know if they want the Vice President. That’s the problem; they want something we don’t know about yet or hasn’t been seen on the national stage.”

“[Biden] certainly has a massive task ahead of him to reassure voters that this major concern that they’ve raised, and has been raised before – his age, his fitness to run – aren’t a major issue,” Leiter said.

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