Biden's Lead in Poll Tumbles as Trump Gains Support for Pandemic Response
A newly released Reuters/Ipsos poll evaluating President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in a head-to-head matchup shows troubling news for Biden.
According to the poll, a lead once enjoyed by Biden has completely “evaporated,” while Trump’s numbers continue to ascend.
Reuters/Ipsos said that “Joe Biden’s advantage over President Donald Trump in popular support has eroded in recent weeks as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee struggles for visibility with voters during the coronavirus pandemic.”
The poll, which was conducted online Monday and Tuesday, found that 43 percent of registered voters said they would support Biden in the general election, while 41 percent said they would vote for Trump in November.
Reuters noted the election is now “a toss-up, as the results are within the poll’s credibility interval” of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
That might sound less than comforting to supporters of the president, but when you take into account lingering questions about the reliability of polling when it comes to Trump along with the trend of shrinking support for Biden, it’s a good sign for the president’s re-election chances.
The former vice president’s support has collapsed by 6 points since a week ago and 8 points since April 21, when a similar poll was conducted.
To put it simply, Biden is consistently losing support.
The poll also found that 45 percent of respondents had more confidence in Trump with regard to handling the economy and creating jobs.
A mere 32 percent of those polled felt Biden was the best candidate to get Americans back to work following the economic crisis created by the coronavirus.
Confidence in Trump’s ability to create jobs is increasing; he holds a 13-point advantage over Biden on the issue, more than double his 6-point jobs lead in the April 21 poll.
Biden, who held an edge over Trump in the April poll on the issue of handling the country’s response to the coronavirus, is now behind in that aspect, as Trump has gained the confidence of many voters.
Of those polled, 37 percent said they think Trump is more qualified to help the country claw its way back from the health crisis, while 35 percent said Biden was better suited for that job.
The April poll showed Biden at the time enjoyed a moderate edge over the president on the issue of handling the coronavirus.
No matter how you view the credibility of polling, as it was wildly inaccurate going into the 2016 election, this is good news for Trump, and it comes amid months of negative media about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and relentless attacks from Democrats.
The polling shows Trump’s standing in the nonweighted polling increased throughout a period of weeks as he has been highly visible throughout the country’s crisis.
Biden, meanwhile, has been relegated to holding digital briefings and media appearances from his Delaware home — while also facing a sexual assault allegation.
Reuters speculated that the allegation from former Senate staffer Tara Reade might be affecting Biden’s polling performance, but it could not conclusively link it to the Biden plunge.
Reade has alleged that Biden groped, kissed and digitally penetrated her during an unwanted advance in 1993.
Biden has denied the allegation.
“The political impact of the situation was not yet clear in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, which showed 53% of the American public said they were ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ familiar with Reade’s allegation,” Reuters reported.
A Monmouth University Poll released Wednesday, though, found that at least 86 percent of voters have at least heard of the allegation from Reade.
The poll found that respondents were generally split along party lines as to the credibility of the allegation, with Democrats being more dismissive of the allegation and Republicans being more apt to believe it.
Independents, who are likely to be the deciding factor in the general election, are more likely to believe there is credibility to the allegation than not.
“Independents are more likely to feel that the allegation is true (43%) rather than not true (22%), while 35% have no opinion either way,” Monmouth reported of the poll.
The fact that so many people are now aware of the allegation signals that it could become a major campaign issue, despite the fact that some of the national media essentially suppressed the story for weeks.
The Reuter/Ipsos poll received responses from 1,215 American adults, 1,015 of whom identified as registered voters.
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