Joe Biden was the big winner in the polls after the first presidential debate, raising his lead nationally to 8 points in the latest Yahoo News/YouGov polls.
A pair of polls showed the same lead both before and after President Donald Trump's COVID-19 positive diagnosis.
Biden leads by 8 points, 48% to 40%, in the Oct. 1-2 poll, upping his lead by 3 points from the previous Yahoo News/YouGov poll (45%-40%). The second poll Oct. 2-3 showed no change in support for the candidates and showed no sympathy to Republicans or the president for testing positive for COVID-19.
The reviews of the debate winner are far more favoring to the Democrat challenger than the president, as 46% in the first poll say Biden won and only 28% saying Trump won.
Trump turned off independent voters by a large swath, losing 15 percentage points in the debate, having held a 1-point lead 44% to Biden's 43% among independents before the debate and dropping to a 15-point deficit after (Biden 44% and Trump 29%), according to the poll.
The respondents in the second poll also show a majority pinning the blame on the president for his contracting the coronavirus, as 51% say he could have avoided infection if he "practiced greater social distancing and worn a face mask, as recommended by the CDC." Just 18% said Trump could not have avoided it with his actions.
The YouGov poll Oct. 1-2 surveyed 1,505 registered voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. The Oct. 2-3 poll sample of 1,202 registered voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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