Biden trails Trump in poll showing RFK Jr winning one in six voters

A new poll shows Joe Biden trailing Donald Trump by his most significant margin yet while a third-party candidate achieves double-digit levels of support for the second time.

The survey, a CNN poll released on Sunday, has the incumbent president down by nine percentage points to Donald Trump, while a smattering of third-party candidates combine for more than 20 per cent of the vote. Those candidates include Robert F Kennedy Jr at 16 per cent, Dr Cornel West at four per cent, and Dr Jill Stein at 3 per cent.

Mr Trump sits at 42 per cent to Mr Biden’s 33 per cent in the survey. It’s a frustrating dynamic for the Democratic president given that some polling has indicated that the Kennedy family pariah may even be drawing more voters away from his opponent than from Mr Biden’s camp.

Dr West and Dr Stein’s candidacies, both appealing directly to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and greater left, likely reflect the growing dissatisfaction the president faces among his own voting base as he continues to face criticism for his support for Israel amid the war in Gaza.

That fact was highlighted by the support for Mr Biden’s handling of the war among voters ages 18-34, who disapprove of the president’s performance by 81 per cent to 19 per cent on that issue. Among all Democrats, he’s still underwater on the issue of Israel/Gaza: 46 per cent to 53 per cent.

Also of note: Mr Kennedy’s prospects have remained unchanged from where they were in the same CNN poll published last fall. That goes the same for Dr West’s; the main change appears to be the inclusion of Dr Jill Stein in the latest polling, which shows Mr Biden down two percentage points from that previous survey back in November.

There’s also one very clear warning