Analysts on MSNBC appeared visibly emotional and perplexed as they discussed new polling data showing that Americans have grown more distrustful of President Joe Biden on a critical issue.
Biden entered office with promises of “normalcy,” competence, and a commitment to “defend democracy.” However, these assurances are not resonating with independent voters, a reality that MSNBC analysts found difficult to accept. This became particularly apparent as they discussed the latest poll results, which indicated that more Americans trust former President Donald Trump to protect America’s republic than Biden.
Among independents, 53% said they were more worried that a second Biden term would “weaken democracy,” according to the host, while just 42% said the same about Trump. When asked for their opinion on the results, the guests were shocked and surprised.
“I find it shocking, honestly. I can’t, you know, make sense of that number,” said political contributor Susan Del Percio. “I wish I could. I wish I had some really great insight to it. But I don’t know if it’s an outlier or not because the other numbers with independents and Biden are going in the right direction.”
She went on to speculate that restricted camera access in Trump’s first criminal trial may be helping him. “If there aren’t those images coming out of the courthouse, people feel like they know this story. We’ve heard about it for a long time, so it doesn’t surprise me that they’re not into this thing,” she added.
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Even if television crews were allowed into the former president’s hush money trial, they would likely witness him faring well on most days. The former president has already successfully obtained permission to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation, and family members like Eric Trump have joined him in court on other occasions. Furthermore, key prosecution witnesses, including Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, have struggled during their testimony.
April polling supports these findings. According to RealClearPolitics, the former president and Republican frontrunner has maintained a healthy lead over his two rivals in national polls, holding an average advantage of 5.3% across 21 surveys conducted since the beginning of October last year.
These results show that former President Trump has an average support of 41% among voters, while President Biden has 35.7%, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a Democrat-turned-independent, has garnered 11.7%. President Biden has not led in any national poll this year.