Poll: 59% say postpone 2nd debate until Trump recovers

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s lead over President Donald Trump grew slightly in one of the first national polls conducted since the president announced he tested positive for COVID-19.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Sunday found Biden ahead of Trump by 10 percentage points (51%-41%) among likely voters, a 1-point jump from a poll Sept. 30. That increase falls within the survey’s margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted before Trump became ill found Biden had surged to a 14-point lead among registered voters, a 6-point jump from a NBC/WSJ survey Sept. 20.

Trump’s infection raised doubts that the candidates would be able to hold their second debate Oct. 15, as scheduled.

Fifty-nine percent of Americans in the Reuters/Ipsos poll say the debate should be postponed until Trump has recovered from the virus.

The poll was conducted Friday and Saturday. Trump announced early Friday he and first lady Melania Trump contracted the virus.

Before his announcement, Trump was rarely seen wearing a mask in public and had held several large in-person events, some of them indoors, defying recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He regularly told Americans that the end of the outbreak was near, even as data indicated otherwise.

Sunday’s survey found 65% – including 9 in 10 registered Democrats and 5 in 10 registered Republicans – say that if Trump “had taken coronavirus more seriously, he probably would not have been infected.” Slightly more than a third of Americans say Trump has been telling the country the truth about the pandemic, and 55% say he has not.

Overall, 57% of Americans disapprove of how Trump has handled the coronavirus outbreak.

The Trump campaign said Saturday it planned to resume in-person campaigning, despite Trump contracting the coronavirus. “Operation MAGA“will kick off with Vice President Mike Pence holding a rally in Arizona on Thursday.

More than two-thirds (67%) of Americans say the candidates should stop inperson campaigning because of the risk of spreading the virus.