Self-declared socialist [crscore]Bernard Sanders[/crscore] is leading Donald Trump in the polls following the first Democratic debate Oct. 13.

Sanders beat Trump in a head to head contest by nine points 53-44, according to a CNN/ORC poll published Monday. Trump may still be the front-runner for the Republican voters, but his populist message may not play well to independents and more centrist voters.

On October 15, Trump blasted Sanders as “socialist-slash-communist” and a “maniac.” He bashed the series of giveaways being proposed by the two leading candidates.

“I watched [the Democratic debate] last night as Hillary and Bernie Sanders, they just couldn’t give things away fast enough,” Trump said. “And they’re giving them to illegal immigrants. They want health care for illegal immigrants. They want driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.”

Trump also lambasted Sanders for letting Hillary Clinton “off the hook” with regards to her private email server that has dogged her for most of the campaign.

“An FBI investigation on the emails, and he just let her off. And I think that when you’re losing – because he is losing badly if you look nationally – when you’re losing that badly, you have to go a lot stronger,” said Trump.

Ben Carson fared much better than Trump when matched up against the Democratic insurgent. Carson beat Sanders by two points when voters were asked who they would support if the two outsiders captured their parties’ nomination.

Hillary Clinton also lost to Ben Carson by one percentage point but beat Donald Trump by five points. In contrast to both Clinton and Sanders, Vice President Joe Biden was far more likely to beat Ben Carson with 52 percent of those polled saying they would support him compared to 44 percent for Carson.

As things stand Biden would also defeat Trump by a wide margin of 10 points. Bernie Sanders is enjoying a bounce in the polls following the Democratic debate despite most voters saying that Hillary Clinton put in the best performance.

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