Joe Biden Opens Up 9-Point Lead Over Donald Trump In New Poll After Contrasting Coronavirus Response Speeches
After a week in which both Donald Trump and Joe Biden delivered major speeches on their plans to combat the coronavirus pandemic, a new poll shows that American voters prefer Biden. If the election were held today, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found, Biden would vanquish Trump by a nine-point popular vote margin.
According to the poll results, Biden would win 52 percent of the vote, to 43 percent for Trump. The results have changed little from those in the same poll taken last month, in which Biden also won 52 percent, but Trump’s percentage was 44.
Biden’s last remaining rival for the Democratic nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, also would defeat Trump if the election were held today, according to the poll. Sanders fails to win a majority of voters, and edges Trump by only four points, according to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey. Sanders beats Trump in the poll, 49-45.
The same poll also showed Biden crushing Sanders in the race for the Democratic nomination, with a lead of 29 points. According to the poll, 61 percent of Democrats prefer Biden as the nominee to take on Trump in the November general election, while only 32 percent say Sanders would be the better Democratic nominee.
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who also remains in the race, garnered support from 4 percent of Democrats in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Trump’s Wednesday address from the Oval Office failed to reassure most Americans about his ability to handle the coronavirus crisis, with stock futures markets responding by plunging in real time as Trump delivered his televised speech, according to an account by The Atlantic.
Trump also misstated several of his own administration’s policies in the speech, requiring the White House to issue quick corrections, and his delivery of the address appeared “awkward and stilted,” according to Atlantic writer Peter Wehner.
According to an account by former Republican presidential adviser David Gergen, published by CNN, Biden’s speech “shows how a normal president responds in crisis.”
“His ideas were reasonable, his words calm and reassuring, and he related well with working people and the vulnerable,” Gergen wrote, calling the former vice president’s Thursday address a “classic presidential speech.”
The poll showing Biden leading Trump by nine points also showed a sharp disagreement about Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, along party lines. While only 13 percent of Democrats said that they approve of Trump’s response to the pandemic, an overwhelming 81 percent of Republicans gave him a thumbs-up for how he has handled the deadly viral outbreak so far.
