Biden takes 14-point lead over Trump in presidential race after first debate, says poll
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has widened his lead over President Donald Trump to 14 points in the race to the White House in a month, a new poll which was conducted immediately after their first debate in Ohio last week has said. There were also other polls that showed the president could have done better in handling the coronavirus pandemic.
The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, which was released on October 4, showed 54 percent were backing the former vice president as against 39 percent favoring the incumbent who himself has been hit by the virus now. It also showed that more people disapproved of Trump’s job as the president than those who approved.
The two-figure lead that Biden has secured over the GOP leader is many points higher than the one the former secured over the past many weeks even though it has a margin of error of around three-and-a-half points. The Democratic camp will be feeling upbeat with Biden securing a healthy lead over Trump just a month before the election but only winning the popular vote is not enough to clinch the White House. Biden has to win enough key states to win the electoral college and Trump has been found to be popular enough in the battleground states. In June, a New York Times-Siena College poll showed Biden taking a 14-point lead over the incumbent by cutting into the base of the Republican — the older White men.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was also released on Sunday, October 4, the majority of Americans thought Trump could have avoided the infection had he taken the virus more seriously. More than seven million people have been infected in the US while more than 209,000 have died. A third poll, conducted by ABC News/Ipsos on October 2 and October 3 and released on October 4, showed 72 percent of Americans feel that the president neither took the possibility of contracting the virus “seriously enough” nor “the appropriate precautions when it came to his personal health”. It also said that only a third of Americans (35%) approve of the way the commander-in-chief has handled the response to the pandemic.
The president has throughout dismissed the severity of the pandemic saying it would disappear on its own. He has cared little about wearing a mask and mocked Biden repeatedly over the same. He even said at the first debate that Biden wore the biggest mask he ever saw. In May, Trump had claimed publicly that he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a precautionary measure against the virus despite the fact that it was not approved by the experts, leading to outrageous reactions from the opponents and media.
59% Americans want debates postponed till Trump recovers
The Reuters/Ipsos poll said among the adults who were expected to cast ballots on November 3, 51 percent were backing Biden while only 41 percent supported Trump. Four percent said they were choosing a third-party nominee while another 4 percent said they were yet to make a decision. The poll also found that 65 percent, including nine in every 10 registered Democrats and five in 10 registered Republicans, agreed that if Trump had taken the virus more seriously, he could have avoided getting infected himself.
Besides, only 34 percent said they thought Trump was telling the truth about the virus while 55 percent said he was not. Also, 57 percent of those polled said they did not approve of the president’s response to the pandemic overall. Fifty nine percent believed that the remaining presidential debates (in Florida on October 15 and Tennessee on October 22) should be postponed till Trump makes a complete recovery. Sixty seven percent of the Americans also want to put an end to in-person electoral rallies.