Biden retakes 8-point lead in Fox News poll as voters sour on Trump's pandemic response

It isn't the 11-point blowout registered by Quinnipiac on Wednesday, but former Vice President Joe Biden has taken lead of 8 percentage points over President Trump in a Fox News poll released Thursday night. In the same poll a month ago, the two were tied, but before that Biden held a steady lead over Trump. Biden's 48-40 percent lead "is outside the poll's margin of error," Fox News notes. "However, given that 11 percent are undecided or plan to vote for someone else, neither candidate hits 50 percent support. The race could go either way."

Biden has a national lead of 5.5 points in RealClearPolitics' polling average.

The voters in the Fox News survey have a better opinion of Biden than Trump — Biden's net favorability is +2 points while Trump's is -12 points. But the numbers Fox News focused on are coronavirus versus economy. Biden bested Trump by 9 points (46-37 percent) on trust to handle the coronavirus pandemic and led Trump by 17 points on health care (50-33 percent), while Trump held a 3-point lead on managing the economy (45-42 percent). Overall, 44 percent of respondents approved of Trump's job performance while 54 percent disapproved.

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The election is still months away, but a few metrics could spell trouble for Trump. Two groups he won in 2016, senior citizens and independents, currently back Biden by 17 points and 13 points, respectively. Biden also had a 12-point lead among voters who are very motivated to vote this fall, and 69 percent of Biden voters said they are extremely motivated to vote versus 63 percent of Trump voters.

Trump, who complained on Twitter earlier Thursday that "Fox News is doing nothing to help Republicans, and me, get re-elected on November 3rd," tweeted (and retweeted) his own poll Thursday night.

The Fox News poll was conducted May 17-20 among 1,207 registered voters contacted via phone by Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company (R). The poll's margin of sampling error is ±2.5 percentage points for all registered voters.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.