A Monmouth University survey suggests that Biden, one of the co-frontrunners in the Democratic race, could suffer some political damage from the Ukrainian allegations that sparked the Democrat-controlled House to formally launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump. The survey, released Wednesday, indicates that quite a significant number of voters believe Trump’s accusations against Biden that during his vice presidency he forced Ukraine to fire the prosecutor who was looking into corruption at the Ukrainian energy company where Biden’s son, Hunter, served on the board.
Among crucial self-identified independent voters, 39 percent believe that Biden pressured Ukrainian officials, with 27 percent disagreeing and a third unsure.
“The fact that 4-in-10 independents are inclined to believe what they have heard from Trump is a warning sign for the Biden campaign. How the candidate fights back against this charge will be crucial to his argument of electability,” Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said in a statement.
The survey also shows that Trump is in hot water as well, with just four in 10 registered voters continuing to say that the president should be re-elected, compared to 57 percent who say it’s time to have someone new in the White House.
“Trump’s base is sticking with him, but these results suggest that the president remains particularly weak among voting blocs that were crucial to putting him over the top in 2016,” Murray said.
Another interesting trend the poll showed is that the race for the Democratic nomination is turning into a two-candidate battle between Biden and progressive champion Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as she currently stands at 28 percent support among self-identified Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters, with the former vice president at 25 percent. She is followed by Bernie Sanders, who’s making his second straight White House run, with 15 percent.
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is at 5 percent in the survey, along with Sen. Kamala Harris. Tech-entrepreneur Andrew Yang and best-selling spiritual author Marianne Williamson are at 2 percent in the poll, with 11 other contenders in the record-setting Democratic field registering at 1 percent or less.
The Monmouth University poll was conducted September 23-29, with 1,161 people questioned by live telephone operators. The survey’s overall margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.