Biden Surges in Post-Debate Poll Before Trump Hospitalized

(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden leads Donald Trump by 14 percentage points in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll taken after Tuesday's debate but before the president was diagnosed with coronavirus.

Biden led Trump 53% to 39% in the national poll, his highest margin of the presidential campaign, surpassing his previous 11 percentage-point margin peak in July.

Biden's lead nearly doubled following the debate from 8 percentage points in the previous WSJ/NBC News poll, taken in September. Some 44% of voters said Biden bested Trump in the chaotic forum compared with 24% who said Trump won and 17% who said neither won.

The debate was marked by Trump's incessant interrupting of Biden and constant cross-talk between the two candidates. Trump also refused to denounce a White supremacist group.

The president's family and entourage refused to wear masks in the debate hall despite the rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates and the Cleveland Clinic, the medical facility hosting the debate. Two days later, Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19 and he was hospitalized on Friday.

The debate was “a shock to the system,” said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who directed the poll with Democrat Jeff Horwitt. “The public can be taking a moment to say, ‘What did I just see, and how do I feel about it?'”

The poll shows declining support for Trump among two key groups of voters. The survey showed that women now favor Biden 60% to 33%. At the same time, Trump's advantage among men 50 years and older has vanished. While the president had a 13-point lead in this demographic in a September poll, Biden had a 1-point edge in the latest survey.

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Meanwhile, an online, less scientific poll from Reuters/Ipsos poll taken Oct. 2-3, after Trump's diagnosis, shows no “sympathy bump,” with nine in 10 Democrats and five in 10 Republicans saying Trump could have avoided getting sick.

Trump announced that he had tested positive for the virus early Friday after Hope Hicks, a close aide, tested positive. Since then several other Republicans have tested positive including Trump's debate coach, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; Senators Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, Thom Tillis, former senior adviser Kellyanne Conway and aide Nick Luna. The president was hospitalized Friday afternoon.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll was conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 1 by phone and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

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