Just 17 percent of voters believe that former Vice President Joe Biden is “more liberal than most Democrats,” according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll released this week, complicated President Donald Trump’s efforts to paint Biden as a puppet of the “radical” left.
The national tracking poll of 1,984 registered voters, conducted June 26-29, asked respondents: “Generally speaking, do you think Joe Biden is more liberal or more conservative than most Democrats?”
While a majority (52 percent) believed Biden was “about the same as most Democrats,” just 17 percent said Biden was “more liberal than most Democrats.” Another 13 percent felt Biden was “most conservative than most Democrats,” and 18 percent did not know or had no opinion.
The survey found that 41 percent, though, believed Biden’s “beliefs and policies” were more liberal than their personal beliefs while 12 percent said they were more conservative. About a quarter (27 percent) of those surveyed believed Biden’s “beliefs and policies” were “about the same” as theirs and 20 percent did not know or had no opinion.
About a third (32 percent) said Biden was “very liberal” and another 23 percent said he was “somewhat liberal.” The poll found that 23 percent believed Biden was “moderate,” while 7 percent believed he was “somewhat conservative” (4 percent) or “very conservative” (3 percent). Another 14 percent did not know or had no opinion.
In comparison, the poll found that 43 percent believed Trump’s “beliefs and policies” were “more conservative” than they are.
The Washington Post noted this week that the left-wing attacks against Biden in his party’s presidential primary actually make it more difficult for Trump to portray him as a “puppet” of the “radical left,” because “they have to seem like the ones with power” even though Biden defeated them in the primary.
The story Trump is trying to tell about Biden is “just not a story most voters are going to believe,” according to the Post, because, during the presidential primary season, “with just about every issue, the left candidates argued for more comprehensive and faster change, while Biden disagreed. They criticized him for being too cozy with Republicans. He insisted that he could work with them. They proposed Medicare-for-all; he wanted something more modest.”
“And Biden won, a victory that was characterized by almost every observer as a triumph of pragmatic moderation over ambitious ideology,” the Post continued. “Even if you don’t pay close attention to politics, you know that he fought with the left and beat them. So when Trump comes along and says Biden is the left’s puppet, it makes no sense.”
As the Trump administration figures out how to attack Biden before November, Trump showed how difficult the “radical left” framing could be at his Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally when he actually admitted that Biden “was never radical left.”
“Joe Biden is not the leader of his party. Joe Biden is a helpless puppet of the radical left, and he’s not radical left,” Trump said at the rally. “I don’t think he knows what he is anymore, but he was never radical left, but he’s controlled by the radical left, and now he’s really controlled.”