Investigating Trump and democracy being on the line.
Apparently those are two issues that are at the forefront of voter's minds
coming into the midterm elections in November.
That is according to a recent NBC news poll, which is pretty interesting.
And again,
we're in the middle of the January 6th committee hearings were learning more and
more about all different kinds of senators and congress people's involvement.
And all the funny text messages that Fox news hosts have sent,
the Chief of Staff during that day.
But let's talk about investigating Trump, right.
So here was the idea, okay, if the raid happens on Mar-a-Lago,
it's gonna look, I think some were arguing really, really bad for democrats.
What bad for democrats?
So this is the fear, right.
This is the sort of centrist fear that often happens,
which is like if we do anything bold,
maybe we will face backlash even though there was a literal crime committed.
It turns out those centrists, pollsters and pundits were wrong because actually
majority of voters, a majority of all voters approve of Trump investigations.
This was the question, do you think investigations into alleged wrongdoing
by the former president should continue because he needs to be held accountable.
Not continue because they're politically motivated and divide the nation.
57% said, yeah, they should continue and that could be all the things right.
We're talking financial crimes, were talking stolen documents crimes,
we're talking overturning a democratic election crime, right,
like there's many different buckets of crimes.
It's a little bit of like one of those carnival games the horses and
which one's gonna get their first type thing.
So that was pretty interesting.
There's more on the January 6th events combined.
50% of voters, say Trump is solely or
mainly responsible for January 6th up 5 points since May.
Before the House committee investigating the attack began holding
multiple televised hearings.
That's compared with 49% saying Trump is only somewhat responsible or
not responsible at all, which is down from 6 points in May.
So those points correspond to my faith in the American people.
Just ti ti ti like all right.
[LAUGH]. Like this is doing something that being
said and I don't know if this solidifies or dings my faith in the American people.
What about Biden's job approval rating?
Yeah, it's not really going nowhere.
So back in April last year it was a 51%,
May of this year was 42%, August still 42%.
And again, this was August 12th through 16th.
So the signature of the IRA, the inflation reduction act,
the climate bill not been factored into this, it seems.
So who knows maybe that approval rating will be bumped up a little bit, but
it's very flatlined, it seems.
In terms of who people want in charge, mid in November, of registered voters prefer
Republicans winning control of Congress while 45% want Democrats in charge.
Okay, in May's poll, the parties were tied 46, 46.
So again, yes, Trump did the wrong stuff, but I still want Republicans in power.
This is why I hate polls.
And then finally, democratic enthusiasm does seem to be up.
Obviously, given the decision around Dobbs and the overturning of Roe v Wade.
According to the survey, the NBC news survey,
68% of Republicans expressed a high level of interest.
Sorry, this is just general excitement.
General excitement might be, high level of interest in the upcoming election.
Registering either a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale versus 66% for Democrats.
That 2-point GOP advantages down from 17 points in March and 8 points in May.
So it seems close now, but there was much more
enthusiasm from Republicans before versus now.
And Democrats are we ever excited about anyone?
No.
The real thing, the real real issue, the real graph, here we go.
Here's an eye to roll a graph for you.
What issues matter most to voters?
It seems like threats to democracy,
number one kind of far outstanding almost to over 20%.
Threats to democracy is the number one issue followed by cost of living,
jobs in the economy, immigration, climate change, guns,
abortion all the way down, which is surprising.
So again, this doesn't feel like the most conservative poll.
But threats to democracy feels like despite
Liz Cheney not winning her reelection campaign.
Feels like something that people are of all stripes,
all political parties are coalescing around.
The poll also back to abortion rights did find,
the 58% of voters disapprove of Roe being overturned and 38% approved.
So, yes, everyone thinks the country is heading in the wrong direction.
They've always thought that from the beginning of time and
the beginning of polls, we don't need to go into that Dan 57%.
Yes, we should investigate Trump 58% overturning of Roe v Wade not a good idea.
What do you make of this and how it puts us going into these elections?
>> Yeah.
To me what it makes of it is that big picture over the past two years like we've
been in the minutia of all of the news and whatnot.
But big picture of the past two years is that Joe Biden's
administration tried to go in saying they would play ball and
actually fight against obstructionist Republicans.
They didn't really end up doing that that much.
And that's why you see the hit and
Joe Biden's poll numbers at least why speculate.
Republicans went in on culture issues.
They started with Dr.
Seuss books just to feel the waters out then they went towards canceled culture.
And wokeism in Florida and creating all these other permutations of the word
woke that clearly makes, they never talk to any black people about it.
And continuing to kind of go all in on, I think going too far in
overturning Roe v Wade and going back wild with threats to democracy.
So I think those things are top of mind and I'm happy to see all these
polls are little bits of data literally and their moments in history of snapshots.
Because remember a CNN poll that was from late July that was basically saying that
people's opinions of Trump in January 6th.
While the majority of them said that he seems to have done something wrong,
even a lot of people said that was outright illegal what he did.
It seemed that from that poll that people's opinions hadn't really
changed as a result of the hearings.
So I don't know maybe those poll was new,
maybe the information's marinating a little bit more.
But to me, the top line thing there is, I'm happy that at least a poll seems to
suggest that threats to democracy are a top line issue.
It's been a top line issue I know in our heads for at least since before 2016,
if not before that.
But all the other things there,
abortion is a little bit lower than I'd like to see on the list, climate change.
For how long you and I and all the folks on damage report been doing the show to
see it that high in a poll of issues Americans care about, that's great.
And so hopefully the inflation reduction act, which I hope if Democrats are able
to message the name of that act and point to thing that are actually going well.
While inflation seems to be heading down or like being flatlining right now,
then maybe that will be the smartest thing Joe Manchin has done for the party so far.
Because naming that and marketing off of that,
Democrats aren't great at marketing or messaging.
But if they can turn that and say, look, we did a thing for
you that addresses climate change and the economy and jobs and
the stuff that apparently polls say y'all are interested in.
That should ideally translate to what left us have been screaming about this entire
two years, which are bring material issues to voters and
they will reward you for that.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
And man giving mansion credit.
Woo, yii.
But yeah, I mean,
I do think that yes, addressing real world issues is interesting.
I mean, it's very, very important.
But this also shows you that politically they're but
we also need to make sure crooks aren't necessarily running the country and
between, again, the documents being taken.
This is a poll that was conducted after the raid between the financial crimes
that we know are unfolding in New York courts.
And obviously the January 6th hearings,
like some of that is starting to percolate.
So I do feel oftentimes I'm like, we're so Trump,
obsessed, Trump, Trump, Trump and yet to have any kind of and
accountability to move on in any kind of way.
Yeah, we got to slay this dragon debt.
All right, this is not a good dragon.
All right. I'm sorry Dragon Squad, but
like this is insanely critical and it seems like it's not falling on deaf ears.
It seems like there is strategy for once.
It might be paying off for Democrats.
That being said again, I passed any kind of voting rights legislation.
Okay no, never mind.
All right now, that's fine.
We can just let that languish.
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