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  • All right, let's now take a look at what the public opinion polling is telling us since Thursday's debate.

  • NBC News' Steve Kornacki is at the big board.

  • So Steve, we don't have a lot of data yet, but we do have some new numbers from the CBSU GovPoll over the weekend.

  • This is just an immediate snapshot following the debate, but what does it tell us?

  • Yeah, I mean, everybody's waiting for sort of a definitive poll to come out.

  • We don't have that yet, but we've had a couple now.

  • There's another one this morning that looks very similar to what I'm going to show you from this CBSU GovPoll, and they asked a couple questions here.

  • Let's show you this first of all.

  • They asked a general question, should Biden, this is just in general, should he be running for president?

  • They've asked that throughout the year.

  • Back in February, 37% of voters said that Biden should be running for president.

  • Now, right after the debate, they have that number dropping to just 28%.

  • By comparison, they asked the same question about Donald Trump post-debate.

  • The number is 46%.

  • Now, more specifically, in response to the debate, they asked this, what should Biden do right now in the wake of this debate?

  • And in this CBS poll, 64%, basically two-thirds of the electorate said he should step aside.

  • And I think what's particularly troubling for Biden in that number, not just the fact that it's two-thirds, is look at within his own party.

  • This isn't just his political opponents saying he should get out of the race.

  • This is worry within his own party, concern within his own party, 45% of Democrats saying that Biden should step aside.

  • Obviously, that performance, I think, just reinforcing and maybe even increasing in terms of its potency.

  • The main concern or one of the main concerns we've seen over and over when it comes to Biden, and that is his age.

  • This is a Gallup poll just before the debate.

  • And already going into the debate, 67% of voters said they considered Biden too old to be president.

  • That's 30 points higher than the number for Donald Trump.

  • And just take a look at the other oldest nominees in history.

  • John McCain in 2008, Dole in 1996, Reagan in both of his campaigns.

  • The number was somewhere in the 30s, even the 20s for Reagan.

  • That Biden number is a number we've never seen for any candidate before.

  • And I will say, as we wait for definitive polling, we do have one poll that has now asked the horse race question after the debate, asking Biden versus Trump after the debate, who are you for?

  • It's just from one state.

  • It's from New Hampshire.

  • But in that New Hampshire poll, this is out just a couple of minutes ago.

  • Trump leads by two points in the new New Hampshire poll.

  • If you can read my writing, Trump plus two.

  • And the critical thing there is in 2020, Biden carried New Hampshire by 7.5 points.

  • So we don't have a pre-debate poll from St.

  • Anselm was the pollster here.

  • Their last one had been in December.

  • They had Biden up 10 then.

  • This is their first poll since December.

  • But at least compared to the 2020 result in New Hampshire, their poll just after this debate is a pretty big shift.

  • Yeah, that's certainly a warning sign for the Biden campaign.

  • So Steve, what about the alternatives?

  • What do we know about feelings for Vice President Kamala Harris?

  • Yeah.

  • And you just heard, you know, Mike taking you through all of the sort of political machinations that are involved there.

  • But here's the dilemma for Democrats.

  • You could just see it in the numbers.

  • You know, take the basic question.

  • You know, it's a good measure of every politician, favorable, unfavorable.

  • Two recent polls asked it about Joe Biden.

  • You could see here he was 39 favorable, 58 favorable.

  • This is about a week ago.

  • About two weeks ago, 44, 56.

  • And Fox, these are not good numbers.

  • But they asked the same question in the same polls about Kamala Harris.

  • These numbers aren't even, you know, aren't better.

  • In fact, they're a little bit worse.

  • Her favorable 37 in the same poll where Biden's is 39, 41 in the same poll where it's 44.

  • And with what Mike just told you there, that's a huge consideration or it probably is for Democrats, because if you do say Biden is very weak, got to get him out, got to get somebody else in.

  • If Kamala Harris is likely to be that nominee, Democrats have to ask themselves, is that really going to enhance their political positioning?

  • OK, Steve Kornacki, thanks for breaking it down for us, my friend.

  • I appreciate it.

  • Thanks for watching.

  • Stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media.

All right, let's now take a look at what the public opinion polling is telling us since Thursday's debate.

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