“Criminal,” “Fascist,” “Old,” and “Fat” — these are some of the unflattering terms voters use to appraise a few of the leading candidates for the White House in 2024, according to a new poll from the Daily Mail and JL Partners.

Even so, the polling shows President Biden — summed up as “old” — enjoying a slight edge over Republican opponents in four likely 2024 matchups as he runs for re-election.  

The survey found that, presuming Mr. Biden is the Democratic nominee, he would enjoy an advantage over President Trump, Governor DeSantis, Vice President Pence, and Governor Christie.

The poll also asked voters to volunteer a one-word description about some of the country’s most prominent presidential hopefuls.

Among all respondents, voters described Mr. Trump most frequently as “criminal.” Other common descriptions included “dangerous” and “liar.”

When asked to provide a single-word description of Mr. DeSantis, the two most common descriptions were “fascist” and “unsure.” Voters also described him as “racist,” “leader,” and “evil.”

Mr. Biden was overwhelmingly described as “old,” with the second most common description being “incompetent.” Voters described Mr. Christie as “unknown,” “fat,” and “unsure.”

Governor Newsom, who was not polled in presidential matchups but was included in the description portion of the survey, was described as “unknown” and “unsure.”

The poll also sorted one-word description responses by party affiliation. Although Republicans generally had positive words to describe their party’s potential nominees, except for Mr. Christie, Democrats mainly described Mr. Biden as “old” and Mr. Newsom as “unknown.”

Independents, who were crucial to Mr. Biden’s victory in 2020, had generally negative words for Mr. Trump, describing him as “criminal,” “disgusting,” and “asshole.” 

Likewise, independents described Mr. DeSantis as “evil,” “unsure,” “Florida,” and “leader.” As among all voters, independents overwhelmingly described Mr. Christie as “fat.”

In a prospective matchup versus Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden led with 46 percent to 44 percent, the survey found.  That marks a contrast with a recent HarrisX/Harris poll found that Mr. Trump would defeat Mr. Biden by seven points in a general election, 47 percent to 40 percent.

The Daily Mail and JL Partners poll suggested Mr. Biden had  a narrower  lead over Mr. DeSantis of 44 percent to 43 percent. 

In a race against Mr. Pence, Mr. Biden led 41 percent to 38 percent, and against Mr. Christie the incumbent led by 39 percent to 32 percent.

In the matchup against Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden’s lead is driven by a lead among independents, 42 percent to 38 percent. The other Republican candidates lead Mr. Biden with independents but suffered in other demographics, particularly among Republicans.

Of Republican voters, 90 percent said they would vote for Mr. Trump if he were the nominee, while only 84 percent would back Mr. DeSantis, while 72 percent would support Mr. Pence. Only 60 percent said they would support Mr. Christie.

The Daily Mail and JL Partners poll of 1,000 likely general election voters reported a margin of error of 3.1 percent, meaning that each of the matchups, except for the matchup between Mr. Biden and Mr. Christie, were within the margin of error.