The Harvard CAPS-Harris survey, which polled 2,050 registered voters, found that 46% would vote for former President Donald Trump, while 41% backed the incumbent president if they cast ballots now. At the same time, 13% remained uncertain.
Likewise, if Biden ran against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis he would be defeated with a margin of 42% to 39%, according to the poll. To cap it off, 65% of all surveyed said that the incumbent should not run again in 2024.
Meanwhile, a WPA Intelligence poll conducted in the first week of January 2023 indicated that Biden would beat Trump, but lose to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Out of 1,035 surveyed, 49% said that they would prefer Biden to his predecessor, but if the race was between Biden and DeSantis, the Florida governor would win by 45% to 42%.
The US media link Biden's apparent slump to the emerging classified memo scandal involving Joe and his entourage. On January 9, 2023, White House lawyers confirmed that roughly a dozen classified memos from the Obama administration were discovered last November inside the offices of the Penn Biden Center.
Later, the media shed light on another two batches of classified memos allegedly originating from the time of the Obama administration which were found at two other unsecured locations. On January 20, the FBI found more classified memos in Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware, during a consensual search that lasted nearly 13 hours.
Adding fuel to the fire of Biden's classified memo drama, the president openly claimed that he has "no regrets" about how the US government's classified documents were handled by him and his team.
Meanwhile, some researchers have drawn attention to the fact that while Trump's approval rating had somewhat slumped vis-à-vis that of Ron DeSantis following the November midterms, the former president has regained his positions.
The latest Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey demonstrated that Donald Trump enjoys a 20-point lead over the Florida governor for the Republican Party primary nomination in 2024. Thus, while the former president took 48% support among registered voters, DeSantis got just 28%. Nonetheless, other potential GOP contenders received considerably less than the two Republican favorites. Former Vice President Mike Pence got just 7%, while Marco Rubio and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley took 3% each. The same survey indicated that if Trump does not run, the Florida governor would take 49% and Pence would get 14%.
In November 2022, Trump announced that he would seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. DeSantis has not signaled whether he would run. Biden has repeatedly hinted about a re-election bid, but his recent scandal may seriously disrupt this prospect, according to the US media.