Democrats still 'like Joe Biden,' majority 'don't want him to quit' despite debate, pollster says

CNN polling analyst Harry Enten said Wednesday that the problem with removing President Biden from the Democratic Party's ticket is that the base still supports him.

"The fact of the matter is, most Democratic voters, two-thirds of them, want Joe Biden to stay in this race," Enten said. "They don't want him to quit."

Enten referenced a poll released Tuesday by Reuters/Ipsos, which found 32% of Democrats want Biden to leave the race after his debate with former President Trump, while 66% of Democrats believe he should stay at the top of the ticket.

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"Yeah, overall voters want him to leave," Enten said. "But Democratic voters like Joe Biden. The numbers Joe Biden's getting right now don't look anything like the last two times that Democratic incumbents decided, ‘you know what? It’s time for me to step aside.'"

Enten referred to former Presidents Harry Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson, both of whom didn't run for re-election as incumbents.

The polling analyst also said the Democratic base, and not "activists," are the most important factor in putting "pressure on their members of Congress, their governors, the elected officials, party actors to try and get Biden to leave."

He summarized his analysis in a post on X Wednesday.

"A big issue with getting Biden out?" Enten wrote. "Democrats don't want Biden to leave the race. The voters who could pressure their elected leaders want Biden to stay in. The data right now don't look like Truman (52) or Johnson (68). They look a lot more like Bush (92), who stayed in & lost."

Overall, Biden still faces an uphill battle to regain voters' confidence after last Thursday's shaky debate performance, as a