EXCLUSIVEOne in three Democrats believe Biden should step down from the presidential race and want to see an intervention at the convention next month as pressure intensifies
- The poll found Trump has extended his advantage over Biden to six points
- And a majority of voters believe he should stand aside from the election race
- READ MORE: Trump opens his lead to largest gap yet in our new poll
First came the donors raising concerns about President Joe Biden's fitness to run for reelection.
Then this week, elected Democrats began wondering aloud whether the 81-year-old should step aside.
Now an exclusive poll for DailyMail.com reveals that half of all voters believe he should give up while there is still time to find a replacement candidate, including more than a third of Democratic voters, after his disastrous debate performance.
On Wednesday, Biden said he had no intention of giving up on winning a second term.
'I am running. I am the leader of the Democratic Party. No one is pushing me out,' he said, according to a senior aide who posted his comment on the X social media site.
J.L. Partners polled 1000 likely voters on the state of the race after President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance triggered calls for him to withdraw
But Biden is under intense pressure to consider his position after a stumbling debate performance, during which his answers ground to a halt or rambled into non sequiturs.
The White House has even had to fend off questions about whether he is suffering from dementia.
Democrats are increasingly concerned that Biden is no longer the best candidate to beat Donald Trump in November.
A poll of 1,000 likely voters, conducted by J.L. Partners, found that 50 percent thought he should stand down as the nominee.
Some 34 percent of Democrats support that view and 29 percent of people who said they were planning to vote for him this time around.
The decision whether to run or not rests with Biden, but one in three Democrats also believes that the party should move against him at their convention in Chicago next month if he does not drop out voluntarily.
The drip, drip, drip of concern is in danger of becoming an unstoppable current, said James Johnson, co-founder of J.L. Partners.
'It is difficult to win an election in the United States. It is even more difficult to win an election when almost half the country thinks you should step down,' he said.
'It is very hard to see how this turns itself around for Joe Biden.
'This poll says to me that Biden cannot turn this around and if the Democrats want a chance to win they must look for another nominee.'
Biden struggled during a debate last week. The White House admitted he did not have a great night, but said he was suffering from a cold and a heavy schedule of international travel
A day later he gave a better performance during a rally in North Carolina where he could rely on a teleprompter and the roar of a crowd to get him through the appearance
Biden's campaign has been in damage limitation mode since last Thursday, when he went head-to-head in their first televised debate of the campaign.
The Biden camp had pushed for such an early clash in a hope that they could use it to remind viewers of the chaos of the Trump years in power. The strategy backfired badly.
Biden's halting performance, tailing off mid-sentence at times and standing slack-jawed while Trump spoke, dominated headlines.
Two campaign calls to donors and party officials at the weekend failed to quell worries, and some people on the calls said they were shocked that the debate performance was brushed aside.
At the weekend donor Whitney Tilson, a former hedge fund manager, broke ranks and called for Biden to withdraw from the race. Several elected officials followed suit.
Adding to the pressure, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was now legitimate to ask whether his performance was an 'episode' or a condition.
Biden was leading Trump this time last year, but has seen the former president steal a lead since then. Trump now has a six point advantage, according to our exclusive poll
Biden allies and the White House continue to insist that he should not be defined by one 'bad night' in June.
But the Daily Mail poll showed Biden had slumped to his lowest standing against Biden since we began tracking the data last year.
It found that if the election were tomorrow, Trump would win by six points, beating Biden by 43 points to 37.
The former president has extended his lead by two points since our last poll in March.
Women still prefer Biden to Trump, but he is hemorrhaging support among men. The former president's lead has shot from 10 points then to 18 points now.
