Americans happier about Trump loss than Biden win: poll

Happiness that President Trump lost the 2020 election is a more common sentiment than happiness about President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, according to a Monmouth poll released Wednesday.

About one-third of respondents, 34 percent, said they were happy about Trump’s loss, compared to 25 percent who said they were happy about Biden’s victory. However, when the sentiment was expanded to happy or “satisfied,” the percentages were nearly the same, with 52 percent saying they were happy or satisfied with Trump’s loss and 51 percent saying they were happy or satisfied with Biden’s win.

People who voted for Biden were also more likely to be happy Trump lost (73 percent) than happy Biden won (57 percent). Twenty-six percent of Trump voters said they were angry Trump lost, compared to 36 percent who were angry Biden won.

Thirty-eight percent of Americans said they were dissatisfied (28 percent) or angry (10 percent) about Trump’s defeat, compared to 44 percent who were dissatisfied (29 percent) or angry (15 percent) that Biden won, according to Monmouth.

“This election was always about the incumbent first and foremost. The thought of his loss provoking a stronger positive reaction than the idea of a Biden victory is just one more example of that. Still, the poll shows that the country continues to suffer from deep partisan divisions in the election’s aftermath,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement.

Sixty percent of respondents said Biden won the election fairly, while 32 percent, echoing the president’s spurious assertions, believed widespread voter fraud was the reason for his victory.

“It’s not unusual for backers on the losing side to take a while to accept the results. It is quite another thing for the defeated candidate to prolong that process by spreading groundless conspiracy theories. This is dangerous territory for the Republic’s stability,” Murray said.

Pollsters surveyed 810 adults from Nov. 12-16. The survey has a 3.5-point margin of error.