US: Biden's approval ratings hit new low as new poll puts Trumps narrowly ahead in hypothetical rematch

Washington DC [US], December 9 : In the run-up to the US presidential polls, a new national Wall Street Journal poll has placed former President Donald Trump 'narrowly ahead' of President Je Biden in a hypothetical 2024 rematch, CNN reported.
It is pertinent that Biden's approval currently stands only at 37 per cent among registered voters, according to the poll.
In a choice between Trump and Biden, 47 per cent of registered voters in the US currently say that they would be supporting Trump while 43 per cent say that they would be backing Biden, while a tenth (around 10 per cent) still remain undecided.
As per the new polls, Biden has been weighed down by relatively soft support among "disaffected Democrats."
Registered voters' presidential preference differs across several other scenarios included in the survey, highlighting the degree to which voters' intentions remain fluid at this very early stage of the race, according to CNN.
The results are similar to other recent national polls, which have largely either found a close race with no leader or have given Trump a narrow advantage.
The Wall Street Journal poll finds Biden maintaining only 87 per cent of his 2020 supporters, compared with the 94 per cent of 2020 Trump voters who say they would back the Republican now, CNN reported.
"Voters who are undecided on the presidential race lean Democratic in other survey questions, suggesting that they could be persuaded to back Biden nearly a year from now," the Journal noted.
Notably, when voters are prompted to think of a hypothetical scenario in which Trump is convicted of a felony in "either the classified documents or January 6th federal trials" prior to the election, they split almost evenly between the two candidates, with 46 per cent saying they would back Biden under those circumstances, and 45 per cent pushing their weight behind Trump.
Also, when potential third-party or independent candidates are included, Trump's edge over Biden widens slightly.
In hypothetical matchups with two other potential Republican nominees, Biden ties with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (45 per cent DeSantis, 45 per cent Biden) but runs well behind former UN ambassador Nikki Haley (51 per cent Haley, 34 per cent Biden), according to CNN.
Meanwhile, the views of the national environment remain "unquestionably bleak". Only 26 per cent of registered voters say the US has moved in the right direction on inflation over the past year. But, this number is up from 20 per cent who said the same in August.
The Wall Street Journal also looked at the upcoming GOP primary, finding Trump at 59 per cent among potential Republican primary voters nationally, with Haley and DeSantis effectively tied for a distant second place, at 15 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.
This is similar to other recent polling on the Republican primary, with most surveys giving Trump majority support among the potential GOP electorate nationally.
The poll was conducted on November 29 and December 4 among a random national sample of 1,500 registered voters. Results for the full sample of adults have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 points, according to CNN.