Biden vs. Trump: President Trailing Democratic Rival In Monmouth Poll

KEY POINTS

The poll gives Biden a 4-point lead over Trump, up 1 point from last month
A third of those polled said they thought Trump's handling of the pandemic would hurt his election chances
The results come one day after Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination

A poll released Thursday indicates former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Trump by 4 percentage points, up 1 point from last month’s survey. The differential exceeded the survey’s 3.6% margin of error.

The news came one day after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ended his quest for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

The Monmouth University poll indicated if the election were held today, Biden would garner 48% of the vote compared with 44% for Trump. Five percent of the 857 adults surveyed April 3-7 said they preferred an independent candidate while 3% said they were undecided.

“The static nature of these results suggests the president’s response to the pandemic is certainly not helping his reelection prospects,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a press release.

Nearly a third of those queried (31%) said Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic would hurt his prospects for re-election while 27% said his actions would improve his prospects.

Following Sanders’ decision, Biden picked up a slew of endorsements both from Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans.

However, Sanders was not among those endorsing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, giving Trump an opening to lure disgruntled supporters of the Vermont democratic socialist.

With a Trump-Biden matchup for the general election all but assured, the president attacked his presumed rival, urging Sanders’ supporters to reject Biden as an establishment candidate and turn to the Republican party while Trump’s campaign manager accused Biden of accepting Sanders’ socialist policies.

With Bernie suspending his campaign, it’s clear that the Dem establishment got the candidate they wanted in Sleepy Joe.

But Biden & Sanders agree on all the big issues.

They are both the same. pic.twitter.com/tMFahze6D6
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) April 8, 2020

For his part, Biden is expected to fight Trump with the same positions that enabled Democrats to take the House in the 2018 midterm elections, but he faces a fundraising gap and does not have the same fierce support the president does.

“President Trump’s voters would run through a brick wall to vote for him,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told the Washington Post. “Ain’t nobody running through a brick wall for Biden.”