NBC/WSJ Poll: Most Voters Don't Trust Trump on COVID-19

[Boats]

NBC/WSJ Poll: Most Voters Don't Trust Trump on COVID-19
By: Eric Mack - NewsMax - 04-19-20
Re: https://www.newsmax.com/politics/pan.../19/id/963583/

The trust of Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic lies more with governors, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – which bungled and delayed testing in America – than the U.S. president.

A majority of registered American voters (52%) still disapprove of President Donald Trump's response to the global pandemic, while just 44% approve – an increase of 1 percentage point for disapproval, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

"We have not seen a change at all [for Trump]," according to Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart.

But Hart notes "recrimination" is coming, per the report.

"In every crisis, we go through this coming-together phase," he told NBC News. "And then we come to the recrimination phase.

"President Trump faces some tough sledding ahead in the recrimination phase."

As for trust, Trump grades show that recrimination, particularly when compared to his counterparts. Just 36% trust Trump's rhetoric on the virus, compared to 52% that general do not, per the poll.

Dr. Fauci of the National Institutes of Health has the trust of 60% of registered voters. It was the NIH that helped grant $3.7 million from the Obama administration to the Wuhan, China, lab where intelligence now suggests leaked the COVID-19 disease.

Trust in the CDC is even higher at 69%, per the poll. It was the CDC that reportedly contaminated initial testing kits with the coronavirus, causing at least a one-month delay in getting testing out to Americans.

U.S. governors, which Trump said some of whom left their heavily infected areas unprepared, have the trust of 66% of Americans, per the poll. Even New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose state is the most heavily infected and deadly place in the world to date, gets 10 points more in the way of trust than the president at 46%.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has a 3-point deficit in trust (26% trust and 29% who do not), but a plurality of 42% are not even aware of his coronavirus response statements.

All told, 65% Americans believe Trump did not take the coronavirus serious enough when it first presented itself as a threat, while 45% of those say he is still not handing it well, according to the poll.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll was conducted April 13-15 among 900 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.