More voters believe President Donald Trump is a better leader during the coronavirus pandemic than former Vice President Joe Biden, a new Politico/Morning Consult poll found.

In the poll, 44% of respondents said Trump had shown better leadership, compared with 36% who chose Biden.

Trump fared less favorably against former President Barack Obama in the poll: 52% of respondents said Obama would be a better leader during the crisis, compared with 38% who said Trump would be the stronger of the two.

Biden became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on Wednesday after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2020 race.

Biden's campaign released a detailed plan for how he would address the coronavirus crisis, but he's drawn some criticism for staying off the public stage as Trump bungled the federal government's response.

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More voters believe President Donald Trump is a better leader during the novel coronavirus outbreak than former Vice President Joe Biden, a new Politico/Morning Consult poll found.

In the poll, released Wednesday, 44% of respondents said Trump had shown better leadership, compared with 36% who chose Biden.

Trump fared less favorably against former President Barack Obama in the poll: 52% of respondents said Obama would be a better leader during the crisis, compared with 38% who said Trump would be the stronger of the two.

Biden became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on Wednesday after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2020 race.

The former vice president spoke briefly with Trump by telephone on Monday about the US's response to the outbreak. Biden's campaign also released a detailed plan for how he would address the coronavirus crisis, but he's drawn some criticism for staying off the airwaves and the public stage as the US grapples with the outbreak.

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, a pandemic on March 11. The US is the global epicenter of the outbreak, with more than 400,000 cases and 13,000 deaths as of Wednesday.

The Politico/Morning Consult poll, which was conducted from April 3 to 5 and surveyed 1,990 registered voters, found that a majority, 54%, said Trump's handling of the outbreak had been "poor" or "just fair," while 40% said his response had been "excellent" or "good." The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Fifty percent of respondents said the Trump administration wasn't doing enough to curb the outbreak, while 38% said the administration was doing the right amount.

A majority — 54% — said they disapproved of Trump's overall performance as president, while 44% said they approved.

The Politico/Morning Consult poll came on the heels of a CNN survey in which 55% of respondents said the federal government had done a poor job of preventing the spread of the virus. The CNN poll also found that 55% of Americans said Trump could be doing more to fight the pandemic.

The president and his political allies have insisted he's done a "great job" in responding to the outbreak. And in recent days, Trump has been fixated on the high ratings for his daily televised coronavirus news briefings.

"The Radical Left Democrats have gone absolutely crazy that I am doing daily Presidential News Conferences," he tweeted on Wednesday. "They actually want me to STOP! They used to complain that I am not doing enough of them, now they complain that I 'shouldn't be allowed to do them.'"

"They tried to shame ... the Fake News Media into not covering them, but that effort failed because the ratings are through the roof according to, of all sources, the Failing New York Times, 'Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale' type numbers (& sadly, they get it $FREE). Trump Derangement Syndrome!"

But despite Trump's assurances about the government's response, deeper analysis has found that the Trump administration's missteps and oversights — many of which started years ago when he took office — set the stage for a disastrous and inadequate federal response to the outbreak.