The Washington Post is downplaying its own poll that shows former President Donald Trump handily defeating President Joe Biden in a hypothetical 2024 matchup.
The newspaper said that their poll, conducted with ABC News, is likely an “outlier” and cited other polls that show a much closer race.
In the analysis of the results, the Washington Post wrote, “The Post-ABC poll shows Biden trailing Trump by 10 percentage points at this early stage in the election cycle, although the sizable margin of Trump’s lead in this survey is significantly at odds with other public polls that show the general election contest a virtual dead heat. The difference between this poll and others, as well as the unusual makeup of Trump’s and Biden’s coalitions in this survey, suggest it is probably an outlier.”
According to the poll results, Trump is favored by 54 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. His closest challenger, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has just 15 percent support — down from 25 percent in May. None of the other candidates in the crowded primary field broke double digit support.
“Biden’s overall approval stands at 37 percent, about where it was in May but lower than in February when it was 42 percent. The Post-ABC poll finds 56 percent of Americans disapproving of Biden, a figure on par with other recent polls,” the paper reported.
The survey also asked people if they approve or disapprove of Trump’s job as president, in retrospect. They found that 48 percent of Americans approve, up ten points from when he left office in 2021, and higher than his approval rating for most of his presidency. Nearly half, 49 percent, said that they disapprove.
When asked about Biden’s handling of the economy, only 30 percent said that they approve — the lowest rating of his presidency.
A high percentage of the poll respondents also said that they are not as well off as they were when Biden took office.
“Asked whether they are better off financially than when Biden took office, not as well off or in about the same shape, 44 percent say not as well off, compared with 15 percent who say better off and 39 percent who say about the same,” the Post reports.
The poll was conducted Sept. 15-20 from a national sample of 1,006 adults and there is a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points.
