Monday 21 November 2022 05:20 PM NEW POLL: Dems line up behind Biden while GOP support for Trump slips trends now

Democrats are lining up behind President Joe Biden for the 2024 election after he managed to stave off a red wave in the midterms while Republican support for Donald Trump is on the decline.

The number of Democratic voters who believe that Biden could win the 2024 presidential contest jumped to 71%, up by double digits from the 60% who felt that way in August, a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds.

Meanwhile, 75% of Republicans say Trump could win the next election but that's down 7 points from the 82% who said that ahead of the midterm election.

Republicans won control of the House in the 2022 midterm election but it was not a massive pickup of seats that many expected. The GOP will rule by a scant majority. Right now Republicans have the minium 218 seats to take control with only five races yet to be called.

Democrats, who also kept control of the Senate, credited Biden for holding off a GOP tide. 

But questions remain about whether Biden should run for a second term given his age. 

But questions remain about whether Biden should run for a second term given his age. 

The president, who turned 80 on Sunday, is the oldest president to take office. 

First lady Jill Biden hosted a brunch for the president in the White House residence on Sunday, posting a pic of Joe surrounded by his grandkids and eating his favorite coconut cake.

White House social media accounts also posted a photo of Biden working in the Oval Office on Monday with the caption: 'Ready to get more done for American families.'

But some wonder if Biden should follow the example of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82, who stepped down from Democratic Leadership in Congress to make room for the 'next generation of leaders,' as she put it. 

Stuart Jay Olshansky, an expert on aging at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told The New York Times that Biden may be a member of a subset of older Americans who are 'super-agers,' with the mental faculties of people decades younger.

'Age has been weaponized and people from the other party, whatever party you're dealing with, will always try to say that there's something wrong with this individual,' he said. 'Those of us who study age as a profession say: 'Stop using age as a weapon.''

Two months before the 2020 election, Olshansky, at the University of Illinois, Chicago, published a paper that predicted both Biden and Trump were bound to maintain their good health beyond the end of this presidential term.

Based on a scientific team's evaluation of available medical records, family history and other information, the paper further concluded that both men are probably 'super-agers,' a subgroup of people who maintain their mental and physical functioning and tend to live longer than the average person their age.

Earlier this month, Biden said: 'My intention is that I run again. But I'm a great respecter of fate. We're going to have discussions about it.' The president is not expected to make a decision on running until 2023. 

He would be 86 at the end of a second term. 

Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, said presidential aide Anita Dunn and senior aides have not begun sketching out plans for a 2024 Biden run.

'These claims are inaccurate. We're aware there is no deficit of people who speculate, but very few individuals are actually knowledgeable about anything of that nature,' Bates said.