CNN poll on Trump SOTU bodes poorly for Democrats

1 hour ago 8

Democrats desperate to take the wind out of President Donald Trump's sails and torpedo his State of the Union address Tuesday with heckles, boycotts, and low-energy critiques may be upset to learn that the Americans who tuned in were overwhelmingly receptive to the speech and its contents.

A CNN poll found that a near-supermajority of "speech-watchers" said that Trump's policies will move the country in the right direction.

'Look at the growth President Trump made over the speech.'

David Chalian, the network's political director, told talking head Jake Tapper, "64% say Trump's policies would move the country in the right direction, 36% say the wrong direction."

"Look at the growth President Trump made over the speech," said Chalian. "So pre-speech, it was 54% of speech-watchers said his policies will move the U.S. in the right direction. After the speech, that number goes up 10 percentage points. So Donald Trump made some progress with people watching the speech from their pre-speech expectations to what they saw in the speech itself."

Trump said a great deal on the policy front:

his tariffs might one day "substantially replace the modern-day system of income tax";
legislation should be passed "barring any state from granting commercial driver's licenses to illegal aliens";
he is "restoring American security and dominance in the Western Hemisphere, acting to secure our national interests and defend our country from violence, drugs, terrorism, and foreign interference";
he prefers a diplomatic resolution to mounting tensions with Iran;
he is "ending the wildly inflated costs of prescription drugs";
his administration is leaning on major tech companies to provide for their own power needs;
he is "making it easier for Americans to save for retirement"; and
he is keeping "large Wall Street investment firms from buying up, in the thousands, single-family homes."

In an apparent effort to reassure the network's liberal viewers, Chalian suggested that "it is a much more Republican universe that got polled here because Republicans tune in in greater numbers for a Republican president's State of the Union address."

Chalian added that CNN's "poll of the overall electorate is the exact opposite of that."

A CNN poll conducted last week found that 38% of respondents said that the policies being proposed by Trump would move the country in the right direction, and 61% said they would move the country in the wrong direction.

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images