A Monmouth poll shows that a plurality of voters believe Joe Biden is likely guilty of the increasingly credible allegation he sexually assaulted a Senate staffer in 1993.

The poll asked 739 registered voters if it is “probably true” or “probably not true” that Biden assault Tara Reade, and a plurality of 37 percent said it was “probably true,” while only 32 percent said it is “probably not true.”

By a wider margin of 43 to 22 percent, Independent voters believe the allegation is true.

So Biden only has 32 percent of the public believing he is innocent of a violent sexual assault.

That is not good.

About a third of voters, 31 percent, said they don’t know either way.

Reade claims that while working in Biden’s U.S. Senate office in 1993, Biden not only sexually harassed her, but assaulted her by penetrating her vagina with his fingers. Reade further alleges she was fired in retaliation for filing a harassment complaint.

The handful of investigative reporters taking this seriously have found five witnesses who corroborate Reade told them about the alleged assault at the time. There is also video of Reade’s now-deceased but obviously anguished mother calling into a 1993 edition of CNN’s Larry King Live seeking advice for her daughter’s problems with a “prominent senator.”

For his part, Biden is behaving like the guiltiest man alive, hiding out, picking only friendly media appearances with fake journalists like Jake Tapper and Chuck Todd who will never ask him about the credible allegation. Biden has also been caught lying about Reade, asking prominent women to lie on his behalf, and is engaging in a coverup of his Senate papers at the University of Delaware, which might corroborate Reade’s claim she filed an official harassment complaint.

Reade is Biden’s eighth accuser.

So the facts of the case combined with Biden’s suspicious behavior have him upside down in this poll.

This poll also lines up with a Morning Consult poll that shows 26 percent of Democrats think the Reade allegation is serious enough for Biden to be replaced as the party’s 2020 presidential nominee.

The partisan breakdown is this…

True/Not True/ Don’t Know

Republicans: 50/17/33

Democrats: 20/55/26

Independents: 43/22/35

Good grief, only 55 percent Democrats believe Biden is innocent. That’s pretty sad.

The good news for Biden is that he has widened his national lead over Trump. He’s nine points up, 50 to 41 percent. Biden was up only four points last month. This is a bit of a outlier, though, as a number of other recent polls show Biden losing ground to Trump over the past few days. 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.