Sally Sara: US President Joe Biden is refusing to make way for a younger candidate in the presidential race. Mr Biden says he's not going anywhere despite concerns over his age and cognitive ability. His opponent, Donald Trump, is enjoying increasing support in the polls, but many Americans don't want to vote for either candidate. Whit Ayres is a Republican pollster and president of North Star Opinion Research.
Whit Ayres : If the election were held today, Donald Trump would win in a landslide in the electoral college. Joe Biden has become somewhat weaker, which means that the Trump margin has grown modestly. The problem right now for Joe Biden is not the current polls, but what the polls will look like a week or two or three from now if he stays in the race. He has huge doubts throughout the entire country and especially in the Democratic Party about whether he's capable of handling a rigorous campaign, much less four more years as president of the United States.
Sally Sara: How hard will it be for Joe Biden to get his campaign messages through when this question is dominating him at the moment?
Whit Ayres : It will be almost impossible. I think that he has major, major problems persuading most Americans that he's not really suffering from dementia.
Sally Sara: What does this mean for Donald Trump, do you think? Has he changed his tactics? He seemed a little more disciplined and a little quieter in a way and left this space for Joe Biden to deal with this question at the moment.
Whit Ayres : That's exactly what he's done. He's been far quieter than he normally is and has done far less communicating than he normally does. So I think that he's been playing it smart when the other party's coming apart at the seams, just keep your mouth shut and keep the focus on them. Pretty clear that if Joe Biden is the issue, Donald Trump will win. And if Trump is the issue, that Joe Biden will win. So he's trying to keep the focus on Joe Biden right now.
Sally Sara: What do we know about how many genuinely undecided voters there are right now?
Whit Ayres : If you take a poll, there are not that many undecided voters, but there are millions upon millions of dissatisfied voters who don't like either one of the major choices they're facing. 85% of Americans would change out one or both of the candidates for president if they could. So that tells you that there's a great deal of dissatisfaction about the choices that Americans are currently facing for president.
Sally Sara: How does that compare to what you've seen before, these what have been labelled the double haters, those who don't want either candidate?
Whit Ayres : They are growing as a group, and that is particularly true in light of the disastrous debate performance by Joe Biden.
Sally Sara: What is really surprising you about the numbers at the moment? Are there things, trends that you haven't seen before to such an extent?
Whit Ayres : What's surprising me at the moment is not so much the numbers, but the fact that Joe Biden has not said that he is going to withdraw from the race. It's very, very difficult to conceive of him lasting through a rigorous campaign, much less the next four years as president.
Sally Sara: What does some of the qualitative data tell you about what's in the minds of voters at the moment?
Whit Ayres : That they're worried, they're frustrated, they're upset, and they really don't like having these two people as their choice for president.
Sally Sara: That's Republican pollster there, Whit Ayres, who's the founder and president of Northstar Opinion Research.
