WATCH: MSNBC Panel Melts Down Over Poll Showing ‘Shocking’ Preference For Trump

Analysts at MSNBC nearly pulled out a box of tissues as they struggled to wrap their heads around new polling showing Americans are more distrustful of President Joe Biden on a key issue.

Biden rode into office promising a return to “normalcy,” competence, and a promise to “defend democracy.” None of those are going over well with independent voters, a reality that MSNBC analysts struggled to let sink in while discussing the latest poll results showing more Americans trust former President Donald Trump to safeguard America’s republic.

Among independents, 53% said they were more worried that a second Biden term would “weaken democracy,” according to the host, while just 42% said the same about Trump. Asked what they make of the results, guests were flabbergasted.

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“I find it shocking, honestly. I can’t, you know, make sense of that number,” said political contributor Susan Del Percio. “I wish I could. I wish I had some really great insight to it. But I don’t know if it’s an outlier or not because the other numbers with independents and Biden are going in the right direction.” She theorized that restricted camera access in Trump’s first criminal trial may be helping him.

“If there aren’t those images coming out of the courthouse, people feel like they know this story. We’ve heard about it for a long time, so it doesn’t surprise me that they’re not into this thing,” she added.

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Even if television crews were let into the former president’s hush money trial, they would likely see him winning most days in court. Already, the president has successfully petitioned to attend the high school graduation for his son Barron, and family members like Eric Trump have accompanied his father to court on other days. Additionally, key witnesses for the prosecution including Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels have floundered on the witness stand.

April polling backs up those results. According to RealClearPolling, the former president and Republican frontrunner is carrying a healthy lead over his two rivals in national polls, averaging a 5.3% advantage across 21 surveys taken since the start of October last year. Those results peg President Trump at 41% average support among the electorate while President Biden earns 35.7% and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a Democrat-turned-independent, collects 11.7% of respondents. President Biden has not reported a lead in a single national poll this year.

The longer voters go without giving President Biden high marks for much of anything, the harder it becomes on his former staffers and cheerleaders and MSNBC to spin the news favorably. In November, “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough warned that Trump would “execute” political rivals if he wins the election and later mocked Trump for deferring to states on the issue of abortion. One guest, a non-voting Democratic member of Congress, had a horrible slip of the tongue on the network last year when she said Trump should be “shot” before immediately correcting herself.