Poll: Biden Soundly Beating Trump on Who Would Be Better at Handling Protests and Keeping Country Safe
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A new poll sends a strong signal that President Donald Trump’s home stretch 2020 campaign messaging is failing in its goal, as the survey found that, with two months left before the election, Joe Biden is consistently beating the president on a range of public safety issues.
According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Friday, the Democratic presidential nominee has solid majorities the public supporting his 2020 candidacy on several questions that Trump has made central to his “law and order”-focused re-election bid. This nationwide poll echoes a Fox News battleground state poll from earlier in the week that found Biden leading or tied with Trump on trust over “criminal justice and policing” in Arizona, Wisconsin, and North Carolina.
Per the poll of U.S. adults, Biden is rated as capable of doing “a better job of keeping the country safe” than Trump by 13 percentage points: 55 percent – 42 percent. When it comes to a personalized version of this question — “keeping me and my family safe” — he leads Trump by roughly the same margin, 56 percent – 42 percent.
Biden enjoys a 20 percentage point lead in two other questions related to the nationwide unrest about racial injustice stemming from several notable episodes of police violence, involving victims like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake. On who would do a better job “handling the protests that have been happening in parts of the country,” Trump trails Biden, 39 percent – 59 percent. Likewise, Biden leads by the exact same 20-point margin on the question of who would do a better job of “reducing violence in the country.”
In addition, the ABC News poll finds that Trump’s aggressive rhetoric toward the demonstrations and outburst of violence has been counterproductive.
“Over half of the country (55 percent),” ABC News reports, “said they think Trump is aggravating the situation, while just over one in 10 Americans, 13 percent, said they think he is making it better. Fewer than one-third, 29 percent, believe what Trump has said on the topic has had no effect on the protests over racial injustice.” Even one quarter of Republicans (26 percent) say Trump’s often incendiary tone is making matters worse, nearly as high as the 30 percent of Republicans who say it’s helping.
By contrast, roughly one quarter of Americans (26 percent) in the poll think Biden’s comments on the protests and riotings have made things worse, while roughly the same amount (22 percent) think he has made the situation better.
Both Trump and Biden made dueling visits to Kenosha, Wisconsin this week, creating starkly different narratives about the unrest that has followed the Blake shooting. Biden met with community leaders at a local church and privately counseled Blake’s family as well as talked via phone with Blake, who is still recovering in the hospital. Trump, however, did not meet with the Blakes — they refused to talk without the family’s lawyer present — and instead met with law enforcement officials and toured the damage left by several nights of rioting and looting, decrying the unrest as “domestic terror.”
“Trump’s attempt to reframe the race against former Vice President Joe Biden around ‘law and order,’ does not appear to be breaking through,” ABC News concluded.
