Each week I’m joined by Ron Faucheaux with Lunchtime Politics to get a breakdown of the latest political polling data. We discussed a variety of issues today, but a key takeaway was that Americans aren't happy with President Biden and his Democrat cohorts, and that it’s maybe time for the Republicans to have a try at fixing the nation's issues.
What is your initial reaction to some states transitioning from pandemic to endemic restrictions? In fact, Governor Gavin Newsom in California says his state is the first state that has a plan to move the endemic phase.
Both Democrat and Republican elected officials over the last month came to the conclusion that the American people were just exhausted from the pandemic, and the numbers around the country are showing that hospitalizations and the infection rate have gone way down.
Do you think that this is something that the President's gonna be able to capitalize on?
When President Biden took office there was a lot of public discontent with the way President Trump handled the pandemic. There was a sense that Biden was going to do a lot better, and his approval rating on the pandemic was his highest approval rating of any issues. In the last few months it has collapsed on him. The most recent polls show his approval rating on the pandemic is actually lower than his overall approval rating.
There doesn't seem like there's any national or international issue that is moving his approval rating up.
No, not at this point. The pandemic was a bright spot in terms of his job rating, but it's not any more. The most recent numbers we reported on the Ukraine situation shows only 34% of the American people approve of how he's handling it so far. Trump had high disapproval rating, but he did generally better with the economy. He always had that sort of as an ace in the hole. In Biden’s case, he’s not doing well in the economy, foreign policy, inflation, and there’s a sense that's just flattening out right now. This is not a good sign for where the Democrats will be in November in terms of losing seats in Congress, or Biden in the 2024 presidential election.
The Democrats are split on this issue of criminal justice reform. Some have walked back their stances on being criminal-centric and are now looking at it from a victim-centric lens.
A year or two ago Democrats were talking only about criminal justice reform and figuring out ways to keep criminals out of prison and opposing the whole idea of incarceration. On the far left end, you had Defund the Police movement. People are beginning to realize that you can't weaken law enforcement and expect crime to stay down. It's a big problem here in New Orleans and other places. It takes law enforcement activity and funding to have manpower, patrols and investigations of serious crimes.
I've taken on a lot of criticism for saying that Republicans and conservatives need to put Trump in their rearview mirror, and the polls are finally reflecting that. It seems that comments from former Vice President Mike Pence of not overturning the 2020 election are making an impact.
The most recent Quinnipiac University poll asked voters if they agreed with Mike Pence's view of not having the legal ability to overturn the 2020 election Trump’s view that Pence did. 75% of Americans agreed with Pence’s view and only 16% agreed with Trump's view. More importantly, 52% of Republicans favored Pence’s view, while only 36% of Republicans favored Trump's view.