President Donald Trump trails presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by more than 20 points on race and police issues, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll.
The poll, which will be released in full later this week, finds that 61% of voters believe Biden would be best at solving issues of race and policing, compared to 39% for Trump, reports The Hill, and 62% of voters said Biden would do better at bringing the country together after weeks of protests over the death of George Floyd.
The poll of 1,886 registered voters was conducted June 17-18 as a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and The Harris Poll. Poll did not report a probability confidence interval, as it was a representative online sample.
In other numbers:
- 53% said Biden would do better at establishing law and order, compared to 47% for Trump.
- Race relations tied with the economy as the second most important issue for voters, behind coronavirus.
- 43% gave Trump a positive job approval rating on race and policing, the same as his overall job approval rating.
- 53% of voters oppose Trump’s handling of the protests.
- 57% agreed with Trump's decision to call in the National Guard in Washington, D.C., about protesters.
The survey also found deep racial divisions over policing in the United States, but high levels of support for both the police and for the Black Lives Matter movement:
- 60% have a favorable view of the police.
- 55% view Black Lives Matter favorably.
- 45% say they personally support the aims and policies of Black Lives Matter.
- 33% said they oppose the movement.
- Numbers were split between white and black people on whether they think the police mostly operate fairly and are unbiased.
- 73% of white people say they believe the police operate fairly.
- 70% of black people said police are biased and are not fair.
- 56% overall said police misconduct against black people is fairly common, but 85% of black Americans said it is common.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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