An overwhelming majority of American voters believe that things are “out of control” in the country, according to a new poll.
The newest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll posed the question “When it comes to the country these days, do you generally feel that things in the country are…,” to which 80 percent of respondents chose “out of control” versus 15 percent who chose “under control.”
The final year of President Trump’s first term has been incredibly challenging, calling on him to handle the response to the global coronavirus pandemic as well as national protests following the death of George Floyd in police custody. As such, the poll covered several topics, including approval ratings over Trump’s handling of the current crises and election preferences between Trump and Joe Biden.
Most strikingly, the poll indicated that 46 percent of voters believed the current state of the economy was “poor” and 59 percent of voters were more concerned with the actions of police following Floyd’s death than they were with the “protests that have turned violent” – a concern for only 27 percent of voters.
Trump recorded a surprise victory last week when job numbers for May showed a drop rather than sharp increase as many had predicted. Still, the poll was conducted before the job numbers came out. When asked whom they would choose “if the presidential election were held today,” voters responded 49 percent for former Vice President Joe Biden versus 42 percent for Trump, with the rest unsure or choosing neither.
The NBC News/WSJ poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.