Race for the White House: Biden leads Trump by 4 points in new CBS poll

Race for the White House: Former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Trump by 4 points in the race for the White House.

June 03, 2020 | 05:18

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Trump by 4 points in the race for the White House, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll released Tuesday.

Joe Biden issued a blistering condemnation of President Donald Trump on Tuesday and pledged to offer a break from the "selfishness and fear" that he said have marked Trump's tenure in office and response to protests against racism and police brutality.

His remarks offered a striking contrast to Trump that came about 16 hours after peaceful protesters in a park outside the White House were hit with tear gas so that Trump could cross the park and visit St. John's Church for a photo opportunity -- a move that the Episcopal bishop that oversees the church later condemned.

The poll shows Biden with the support of 47 percent of likely voters surveyed, down slightly from 49 percent in a similar poll released last month. Trump’s support, meanwhile, remained stagnant at 43 percent.

The poll comes at a tumultuous time in the 2020 presidential race and Trump’s tenure in the White House.

The nation is still gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed more than 100,000 people in America. At the same time, protests and civil unrest over racial injustice and police brutality have broken out across the country.

Roughly half of respondents to the CBS News poll — 49 percent — said they disapprove of Trump’s response to the protests, which began in Minneapolis last week after the death of 46-year-old George Floyd in police custody. About one third — 32 percent — said that they approve of the president’s response.

Trump has come under fire for his response to the protests, especially after law enforcement cleared protesters from Lafayette Square across the street from the White House on Monday night so that he could walk to a nearby church for a photo op.

A plurality of respondents — 42 percent — said that they haven’t heard enough from Biden to form an opinion on his response to the protests. The former vice president addressed the matter in a speech Tuesday, in which he sharply criticized Trump’s response to the protests in front of the White House and called for police reforms.

Building on his campaign's core theme that the "soul of the nation" is at stake, Biden made explicit his differences in approach from Trump, who on Monday urged governors to "dominate" protesters, and bragged on Twitter Tuesday morning that "overwhelming force" and "domination" had been on display in the nation's capital.

Biden also challenged Americans: "Look at where we are now and think anew: Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be?"

"Is this what we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren -- fear, anger, finger-pointing, rather than the pursuit of happiness? Incompetence and anxiety, self-absorption, selfishness? Or do we want to be the America we know we can be, the America we know in our hearts we could be and should be?" Biden said.

Most of those surveyed have already decided their preferred candidate for the White House.

Seventy-five percent said that they have already made up their minds on whom they will vote for in November, while another 19 percent said they “probably” won’t change their preference for president.

Only 1 percent of respondents said that they are likely to change their minds at some point before Election Day, according to the CBS News poll.

The CBS News/YouGov poll surveyed 2,071 U.S. residents from May 29-June 1. It has a margin of error of +/-2.6 percentage points.

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