Biden holds 15-point lead over Trump, new national poll says

Democrat former Vice President Joe Biden holds a 15-point lead over President Donald Trump in a national poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University.

Registered voters favor Biden over Trump 52-37%, the poll says. The same poll a month ago showed Biden had an eight-point lead.

Biden gets higher marks than Trump in nearly every category: crisis management, health care, coronavirus response, racial inequality, honesty, empathy and leadership skills.

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Six in 10 voters polled hold an unfavorable view of Trump and 43% hold an unfavorable view of Biden.

Six in 10 voters in the poll say Trump is hurting rather than helping efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

“Trump’s strongest card, the economy, shredded by a killer virus, may have left the president with no go-to issue or trait to stave off defeat … not leadership, not empathy, not foreign policy, and certainly not his handling of COVID-19,” said Quinnipiac University Polling analyst Tim Malloy in a written statement.

The Republican president gets more negatives than positive reviews in the poll when it comes to his handling of the economy, military issues, foreign policy, health care policy and race relations.

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The poll found that two-thirds of voters do not trust the information Trump provides on the virus. Conversely, 65% polled say they trust info coming from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert who has come under fire by the Trump administration.

And Americans don’t have much confidence about sending K-12 and college students back to classrooms and campuses, the poll found. Fifty-nine percent think it’s unsafe to send college students back, the poll says, and 62% believe it’ll be unsafe for K-12 students to return to schools.

When it comes to masks, 71% think everyone should be required to wear them, 73% think Trump should wear one in public and 80% believe masks are effective in slowing the spread of the virus.

The poll surveyed 1,273 self-identified registered voters from July 9-13. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

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