In One Chart: Americans would prefer Obama over Trump and Trump over Biden during the coronavirus pandemic, poll shows

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If only Barack Obama were in charge?

According to the latest Politico-Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday, a majority of registered voters in the United States believe that the former president (52%) would do a better job leading the coronavirus response than the current one (38%).

But, at the same time, perhaps the more relevant stat in the poll of 1,990 voters could be that more think President Trump (44%) is the better choice than Joe Biden (36%).

The two rivals for the presidency discussed the pandemic in a phone call on Tuesday in which Biden said Trump was “very gracious” and responsive to his ideas.

“I laid out what I thought he should be doing. I laid out four or five specific points that I thought were necessary,” Biden told CNN on Tuesday night. “I indicated that it is about taking responsibility, and being the commander-in-chief, taking on the responsibility.”

Overall, 54% of the poll respondents, which were asked a long list of questions from April 3-5, said they disapprove of Trump’s performance so far, while 44% approve.

Another question found that 50% of voters believe the White House isn’t doing enough to fight the outbreak, which is up 7 percentage points over the past three weeks. Only 38% say the Trump administration is doing the right amount, while 4% says it’s doing too much.

The Trump administration has been widely criticized for not taking more decisive action early in terms of testing and getting vital medical supplies to coronavirus hot spots. According to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University, there are now about 400,000 cases in the U.S. with deaths approaching 13,000. New York City remains the epicenter of the outbreak.

The poll, weighted “to approximate a target sample of Registered Voters based on age, educational attainment, gender, race, and region,” has a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.