By: Jack Brewster
Topline: Voters would rather have former President Barack Obama at the helm handling the coronavirus outbreak than President Trump, a new survey finds, though Americans remain deeply divided about leadership during the coronavirus outbreak that has sickened more than 400,000 nationwide.
- A majority of Americans, 52%, say Obama would be a better leader for the current crisis than Trump, a Politico/Morning Consult poll of 1,990 voters released Wednesday found, while just 38% of respondents said Trump would be a better president during this crisis.
- The poll also found Americans picking Trump, 44%, over Biden, 36%, for the leader best prepared to respond to the crisis, an ominous sign for the presumed Democratic nominee trying to gain a foothold during an election upended by the current crisis.
- Obama, who has largely receded from the spotlight since leaving the White House, has been more active on social media during the crisis; on Monday, he tweeted in support of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s response to the coronavirus outbreak and, in a rare knock on Trump, appeared to criticize the current president’s response to the pandemic.
- Trump has been criticized for not responding to the crisis fast enough and not heeding warnings from health officials and even members of his administration during the early months of the outbreak; 42% of voters rated Trump’s handling of the outbreak as “poor” in the Politico survey.
- The president has argued that he did respond swiftly to the crisis, as he instituted a travel ban on foreigners who had recently traveled to China on January 31, though health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, and experts at the World Health Organization, have cautioned that travel bans are largely ineffective in stopping a pandemic.
- Fauci, though, has praised the travel restrictions for slowing the spread of the virus.
Crucial quote: On Wednesday, Obama called for a nationwide testing program for when the U.S. begins to roll back its social distancing policies.
Tangent: Biden and Trump spoke by phone on Monday about the response to the coronavirus outbreak and both described the call as going smoothly.
“I laid out what I thought he should be doing,” Biden said about the call Tuesday on CNN. “I laid out four or five specific points that I thought were necessary. I indicated that it is about taking responsibility, and being the commander in chief, taking on the responsibility.”
And Trump said that he had a “wonderful, warm conversation” with Biden.
“It was a very nice conversation,” Trump added. “He gave me his point of view and I fully understood that.”