A new poll reveals that former Vice President Joe Biden has expanded his lead over his two chief rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination — Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — to double digits.
Biden earns 31 percent of likely Democratic and independent voters' support in the Hill-HarrisX survey, followed by Sanders at 16 percent and Warren at 14 percent. In August, the same poll found Biden at 27 percent, Sanders at 18 percent and Warren at 12 percent. All of the remaining candidates in the crowded Democratic field did not score outside of single digits in either survey.
Other recent polls have shown Warren making gains on Biden. In a recent Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus, Warren was the first choice of 22 percent of likely caucus-goers, followed by Biden at 20 percent and Sanders at 11 percent.
On the national level, a poll released by CNN earlier this month found that Biden's lead over Warren and Sanders had declined. The former vice president had fallen from 29 percent in mid-August to 24 percent by early September, while Warren had risen from 14 percent to 18 percent and Sanders had risen from 15 percent to 17 percent during the same period.
"Different polls are going to have different results. The best route is to look at them collectively in poll averages," Kyle Kondik, Director of Communications at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told Salon by email. "The bulk of the data suggests that Warren’s position is improving."
Head-to-head match-ups have consistently shown that Biden would decisively defeat incumbent President Donald Trump in a general election, and the commander-in-chief has remained consistent in attacking the former vice president. Trump is currently facing intensified for his impeachment after the revelation of a whistleblower report surfaced, which reportedly includes accusations that he asked Ukrainian leaders to examine Biden's alleged involvement in the government's dismissal of a prosecutor who had probed his son. However, no evidence has emerged to suggest that the former Vice President acted with his son's interests in mind in his dealings with the foreign power.
"Trump's doing this because he knows I'll beat him like a drum," Biden told reporters on Saturday. "And he's using the abuse of power and every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me."
Speaking to reporters at the United Nations, Trump moved to put his own spin on the story without offering any proof to substantiate his claims.
"The one who's got the problem is Biden. Biden did what they would like to have me do," Trump said Monday. "Except one problem: I didn't do it. What Biden did is a disgrace. What his son did is a disgrace."
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