In the latest sign that President Joe Biden is falling out of favor, the public now thinks that former President Donald Trump handled the coronavirus crisis better.
What’s more, the latest Rasmussen Reports survey found that voters believe Biden has broken his promise to end the virus.
The findings eliminate one of the few remaining issue areas where the Democrat had been receiving positive approval ratings. It also erases one of the issues on which voters said he did better than Trump.
On the question of fighting COVID-19, likely voters said Biden has done a “worse” job than Trump by a 49%-39% margin. Some 10% said both have done the same job, and 20% of Democrats chose “worse.”
Biden made promises during the campaign to end the crisis and repeatedly hit Trump’s handling of the fight.
For months, polls showed that voters approved of Biden’s efforts. But with the crisis continuing and new variants popping up, voters have soured on Biden.
Rasmussen, for example, asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of President Biden’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic?” Some 55% said “disapprove,” with most of those, 44%, choosing “strongly disapprove.” Some 43% approve of his efforts.
That gap is wider than in a mid-November Washington Post survey. Rasmussen said, “Those findings represent a sharp downturn in opinions about Biden’s effort against COVID-19. As recently as July, 56% of voters approved of how Biden was handling the pandemic.”
Rasmussen also asked, “During his campaign last year, President Biden promised to ‘shut down the virus.’ Has President Biden kept that promise, or broken that promise?” Just 30% said he kept the promise, while 56% said he had broken it.
