Biden surges in the polls to take 14-point lead on Trump after fractious week
WITH 30 days to go until the US presidential election, Democratic candidate Joe Biden is pulling away from Donald Trump, according to the latest opinion polls.
The surveys, one taken following last week’s chaotic presidential debate and the other after Mr Trump tested positive for Covid-19, will make grim reading for the US president as he undergoes treatment at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland.
A post-debate poll conducted by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal put Mr Biden 14 points ahead of the president, the biggest gap the survey has recorded this year. Should the findings prove accurate, Mr Biden could be heading for a landslide victory. However, four years ago an NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll taken just over three weeks ahead of the election also gave Hillary Clinton a 14-point lead.
A second survey, taken after it was announced that Mr Trump had tested positive for Covid-19, showed little sign of a “sympathy bounce”. According to a Reuters-Ipsos poll, which saw Mr Biden’s lead widen to 10 points, 65pc of voters believed that Mr Trump could have avoided being infected if he had taken the coronavirus pandemic more seriously. That view was held by 50pc of Republicans.
The NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday last week as voters digested the fallout from the presidential debate in which Mr Trump faced criticism for his combative approach – he interrupted Mr Biden and Chris Wallace, the moderator, at least 128 times.
Jeff Horwitt, a Democrat and one of the pollsters, declared that Mr Trump was the clear loser. Republican Bill McInturff, another pollster, believed the surge in Mr Biden’s support represented what he described as a “shock to the system” following the anarchic events of Tuesday night.
He suggested that Mr Biden’s lead would probably drop back to between eight and nine points by election day, which would still leave Mr Trump in considerable trouble.
The president, who held a 13-point lead over Mr Biden among men over 50 in the poll taken before the debate, found himself one point behind, according to the latest survey.
Seniors now back the former vice-president by a substantial 27 points and the poll also showed Mr Biden enjoying the support of 58pc of suburban women, compared with Mr Trump’s 33pc.
The president’s support has also weakened among white working-class men, who are of pivotal importance in battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
In all, 49pc of voters believed Mr Biden won the debate, compared with 24pc who believed the president had outperformed his opponent. Mr Biden was also found to have displayed the right temperament by 58pc of voters, compared with 26pc of respondents who favoured Mr Trump.
A majority of voters have a positive view of Mr Biden for the first time since 2018.
A second poll, which was conducted by Reuters and Ipsos on Friday and Saturday, put Mr Biden 10 points ahead of Mr Trump, slightly higher than other recent surveys. It showed that the former vice-president was backed by 51pc of likely voters.
The findings also showed that voters were unhappy about the administration’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic, which has claimed more than 211,000 lives in the US. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
Four years ago, a poll three weeks before the election also gave Hillary Clinton 14-point lead