One quarter of Democratic voters would replace Joe Biden as the party’s nominee for president, a poll has said, after watching the candidate denounce the claims made against him in a video.
The study showed that 26 per cent of Democrats, including 40 per cent of those under the age of 45, would pick an alternative nominee to rival Donald Trump in November’s US election.
Younger Democratic voters and women were also more likely to say that Mr Biden’s denial against sexual assault claims were not credible, according to the Morning Consultant poll.
Tara Reade alleged last month that Mr Biden had sexually assaulted her when she was a Senate staffer in 1993, but he has denied the claim.
Respondents were shown a 35-second video clip of Mr Biden’s first interview on the allegations made against him by Ms Reade, which were detailed by MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski during an interview broadcast last week.
Asked if the allegations were true, Mr Biden responded with an unequivocal denial.
“No. It is not true. I’m saying unequivocally: It never, never happened. It didn’t. It never happened,” he said.
Friday’s interview with MSNBC was the first time the presumptive Democratic nominee for president had publicly commented on the claims.
The debate around his candidacy and the allegations, according to the Morning Consultant poll, show the generational divide among Democratic voters.
The party’s youngest members include those who backed Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries, and were more likely to be sceptical of Mr Biden.
Younger Democrats were 14 percentage points less likely than older voters to consider Mr Biden’s denial as credible, with 54 per cent of the age group saying they believed the former vice president.
Still, 61 per cent of Democratic voters polled continued to back Mr Biden to challenge president Trump in four months time despite current allegations.
More than 700 Democratic voters took part in the study, which was carried-out between May 2 – 3.
