Voters favor President Trump over Joe Biden as a leader during the coronavirus pandemic, a new poll shows.
Voters asked by Morning Consult/Politico who would be a better leader during the coronavirus outbreak said they preferred Trump by an 8-point margin, with the current president garnering 44% of the vote, compared to Biden’s 36%.
But when asked to choose between Trump and former President Barack Obama, 52% said they favored Obama, compared to 38% who preferred Trump.
The poll released Wednesday surveyed 1,990 registered voters.
Trump presides over daily briefings at the White House, leading the fight against the virus he calls “an invisible enemy” and styling himself as a “wartime” president. Voters surveyed are worried about the outbreak — 62% of respondents said they were “highly” concerned.
The Trump administration has been criticized for its handling of the crisis, which swept through a number of European countries before devastating the United States.
The presidential daily briefings have since become a key source of information for people looking to understand the country’s response to the deadly virus. There have been more than 400,000 cases of coronavirus detected in the U.S. and at least 13,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Sixty-four percent of voters said they had watched Trump’s coronavirus task force briefings, with nearly half (49%) saying they felt somewhat more informed by them and 22% said they felt much more informed.
Meanwhile, Biden, abiding by social distancing guidelines, has been relegated to a home studio and largely overshadowed by the often hourslong coronavirus briefings. On Sunday, shortly before a prerecorded Biden event was set to air, the White House called a last-minute briefing for the same time.
Biden has admitted struggling with the newfound dependence on technology in his bid to connect with voters, telling donors last weekend that “you can’t compete with a president” because “that’s the ultimate bully pulpit.”
The president and former vice president spoke by phone on Monday shortly before the daily coronavirus task force briefing. “We had a really wonderful warm conversation,” Trump said of the call, which lasted about 15 minutes.
The poll was conducted April 3-5 and surveyed 1,990 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.
