Keller @ Large: Poll Shows Voters Trust Biden Over Trump To Handle Crime
BOSTON (CBS) -- With Election Day exactly four weeks away, a new CNN poll shows former Vice President Joe Biden with a growing lead over President Donald Trump.
The poll shows Biden is up by 16 points, 57% to 41%. It also shows Trump's approval rating has slipped under 40% and is now 20 points lower than his disapproval rating. Biden's approval rating is at 48%, five points higher than his disapproval.
What really struck me was this outcome when voters were asked which candidate they believe can better handle crime and safety. Voters selected Biden by 12 points at 55% to 43%.
This was the issue the Trump campaign hoped they could use to tighten up this race, and some democrats were worried about it.
But even as two-thirds of likely voters say they believe the election outcome will have a big impact on crime and safety, they prefer Biden to handle it by a wide margin, especially women and seniors.
That's devastating news for the Trump campaign at a moment when 91% of voters say their minds are made up, leaving precious few to be won over in the final weeks.
Is there a chance Trump could benefit politically from his experience with Covid-19?
It's hard to see how because his ratings on his handling of the pandemic are terrible and large majorities don't trust anything he says about the outbreak.
There has apparently been an effort by Trump advisors to persuade him to reinvent himself as a born-again advocate of basic safety measures, like mask wearing and social distancing. But so far that's not happening. Instead, he's dropping the mask every chance he gets and reportedly talking about returning to large rallies, also known as "superspreader events."
In our volatile political climate, you never say never, but it sure seems like it's too late for a course correction even if he wanted to make one.
