Biden ‘would beat Trump in election’

FORMER US vice-president Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump by ten points in a hypothetical presidential campaign, says a poll.

The Emerson College poll has Biden on 55% and Trump with 45%.

Mr Biden, who is fundraising and is expected to soon announce his candidacy, is the most popular potential Democratic challenger, according to the poll.

His lead over the US president drops to 8% when Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, is included as an option.

The poll also shows Senator Kamala Harris defeating Trump by four percentage points while senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders each edge Trump by two points.

The poll also finds that Trump narrowly leads former member of the House of Representative, Beto O’Rourke, with Trump on 51% of support and O’Rourke on 49%.

The poll’s results are based on interviews of 1,153 registered voters from March 17 to March 18. The poll has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.

A CNN poll this week also showed Mr Biden, who was Barack Obama’s deputy, leads the field for the nomination even though he has not officially tossed his hat in the ring.

Mr Biden has told wealthy supporters he is running for president and asking for their help in lining up top donors.

He is very well versed on Irish issues and, last September, launched a compendium of Irish history at the Irish ambassador’s residence in Washington.

He launched the four-volume Cambridge History of Ireland at the residence and spoke at length about his Irish heritage in Mayo and Louth. He said the unique experience of the Irish in America had passed down values to all Americans.

His home town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, has the largest percentage of Irish Americans of any major town in America.

The 76-year-old is now concerned he won’t be able to match the millions some of his Democratic competition raised in their first 24 hours as a candidate, such as Beto O’Rourke’s $6.1million and Bernie Sanders’s $5.9million, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The former vice-president has hinted he would run in 2020 but has yet to make an official announcement. Mr Biden’s middle-class roots and appeal to Midwest voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan are said to worry Republicans.

But he also has his liabilities – he is four years older than Trump and he is more moderate than some of his liberal competition.

It came as Mr Trump escalated his attacks on the late Senator John McCain, saying he gave the long-time politician ‘the kind of funeral he wanted’ and adding: ‘I didn’t get a thank you.’

Mr Trump went on a lengthy diatribe against the Vietnam war veteran, Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate yesterday.

At an event in Ohio, Mr Trump said: ‘I’ve never liked him much’, adding that he ‘probably never will’.

Mr Trump has spent days attacking him on Twitter and in his public comments.

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