Delaware

The Open Thread for August 25, 2017

by Delaware Dem
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We have a lot of polling information today.   First, a new George Washington University Battleground Poll finds there is widespread national concern about President Trump’s public discourse and behavior.  The survey found that 71% of voters agreed his “behavior is not what I expect from a president” (27% disagreed), and 68% agreed his “words and actions could get us accidentally involved in an international conflict” (29% disagreed).  Almost two-thirds (63%) of the registered voters polled said the country is on the wrong track, and a majority (56%) had an unfavorable view of President Trump (41% favorable).

A new Public Policy Polling poll continues to reveal just how evil Trump voters are.

  • 45% of Trump voters say white people face the most discrimination in this country.
  • 54% of Trump voters says Christians face the most religious discrimination and oppression in this country, followed by 22% for Muslims and 12% for Jews.”
  • Trump voters say they would rather have Jefferson Davis as President than Barack Obama 45/20. Obama wins that question 56/21 with the overall electorate.

Meanwhile, 48% support Trump’s impeachment and removal, to 41% who disagree.  52% of voters say they wish Obama was still President to only 39% who prefer having Trump in the White House.   Democrats currently lead the generic congressional ballot by 14 points, 49% to 35%.

In 2020, the PPP finds Trump losing bigly to all well known Democrats.

  • Biden 51, Trump 39
  • Sanders 51, Trump 38
  • Warren 45, Trump 40
  • Cuban 42, Trump 38 [NO!]
  • Booker 42, Trump 38
  • Blumenthal 42, Trump 39 [What?]
  • Harris 39, Trump 39
  • Delaney 38, Trump 38

President Trump slammed the Republican congressional leadership in Congress yesterday:

Jonathan Swan: “Trump is pre-blaming Republican leaders, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, for the debt ceiling headache that’s coming in September. And he’s piling on them at a moment when his relationships with Republicans on Capitol Hill are at an all-time low.”

First Read: “Maybe the biggest political story this August has been President Trump’s rapidly deteriorating relationship with congressional Republicans – all less than a month after the Senate failed to pass its health care effort.”

Mike Allen and Jonathan Swan: “Top White House and GOP leadership officials tell us the chances of a market-rattling government shutdown are rising by the day — and were even before Trump threatened at his raucous Phoenix rally on Tuesday night to use a shutdown as leverage to get funding for a border wall. Trump is dead serious about this fight, a senior administration source tells us, and the president’s talk is starting to spook markets.”

One top Republican source put the chance as high as 75%: “The peculiar part is that almost everyone I talk to on the Hill agrees that it is more likely than not.”

The Hill notes that “with just 12 legislative days scheduled for September –– and the spending debate complicated by a Sept. 29 deadline to raise the debt ceiling –– the Republicans have little room for error. And Trump’s prime-time shutdown threat poses yet another hurdle, forcing GOP leaders to find a legislative sweet-spot that satisfies the president’s border-wall demand without alienating the Democrats, whose votes will be essential to keep the government running.”

“A federal judge blocked Texas from enforcing its revamped voter identification law on Wednesday, ruling that the State Legislature’s attempt to loosen the law did not go far enough and perpetuated discrimination against black and Hispanic voters,” the New York Times reports.

“The decision was only the latest chapter in a yearslong court battle over the state’s voter ID rules, and comes amid concerted efforts by the Trump administration to enact tougher voting restrictions. The stakes are particularly high for Texas: As a result of previous court rulings, the state could be forced to undergo federal oversight of its election procedures.”

Rick Hasen: “Ultimately this case is heading to the Supreme Court. What kind of reception it gets there will likely depend upon (1) whether Justice Kennedy is still on the Court and (2) how Justice Kennedy, if still on the Court, views the evidence of intentional discrimination in this case.”

“In the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, The Atlantic reached out to 146 Republican state party chairs and national committee members for reaction to Trump’s handling of the events. We asked each official two questions: Are you satisfied with the president’s response? And do you approve of his comment that there were ‘some very fine people’ who marched alongside the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis?”

“The vast majority refused to comment on the record, or simply met the questions with silence. Of the 146 GOP officials contacted, just 22 offered full responses—and only seven expressed any kind of criticism or disagreement with Trump’s handling of the episode. The rest came to the president’s defense, either with statements of support or attempts at justification.”

“In the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, The Atlantic reached out to 146 Republican state party chairs and national committee members for reaction to Trump’s handling of the events. We asked each official two questions: Are you satisfied with the president’s response? And do you approve of his comment that there were ‘some very fine people’ who marched alongside the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis?”

“The vast majority refused to comment on the record, or simply met the questions with silence. Of the 146 GOP officials contacted, just 22 offered full responses—and only seven expressed any kind of criticism or disagreement with Trump’s handling of the episode. The rest came to the president’s defense, either with statements of support or attempts at justification.”

Los Angeles Times: “Unabashedly proclaiming his desire for a second term, Trump filed the paperwork establishing his 2020 reelection committee the day he took office and has already started fundraising, years before his predecessors began raking in cash. He has trampled protocol and turned explicitly nonpolitical events, like the Boy Scouts’ national jamboree, into replicas of his roisterous campaign stops.”

“Perhaps most significantly, Trump has transformed the bully pulpit — the president’s ability to rally the country in pursuit of his goals — into a sort of vanity project, staging events not to advance any substantive agenda but to vent and, as aides admit, bask in the adulation of supportive audiences.”

President Trump continues to amp up the pressure on Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), “savaging the Arizona Republican on Twitter and holding a private meeting with several of his prospective primary opponents,” Politico reports.

“Before taking the stage in Phoenix on Tuesday evening for a campaign-style rally, the president huddled backstage with state Treasurer Jeff DeWit and former state GOP Chairman Robert Graham. Both are considering running against Flake, an outspoken critic of the president who recently published an anti-Trump book, Conscience of a Conservative.”

HuffPost: “Another White House council has taken a hit after President Trump’s controversial response to a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Seven members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, which includes Obama appointees, resigned this week, citing Trump’s Charlottesville response and other issues.”

“Confronted with a West Wing that treated policymaking as a free-for-all, President Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly is instituting a system used by previous administrations to limit internal competition —and to make himself the last word on the material that crosses the president’s desk,” Politico reports.

“In a conference call last week, Kelly initiated a new policymaking process in which just he and one other aide — White House staff secretary Rob Porter, a little-known but highly regarded Rhodes Scholar who overlapped with Jared Kushner as an undergraduate at Harvard — will review all documents that cross the Resolute Desk.”

Hey, Kellyanne, please go to Hillary’s website and pick and choose from her various plans.  Or, have your boss resign and let Hillary take office to do his job for him.  Otherwise, shut the fuck up.

“The White House is expected to send guidance to the Pentagon in coming days on how to implement a new administration ban on transgender people in the military, issuing a policy that will allow Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to consider a service member’s ability to deploy in deciding whether to kick them out of the military,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The White House memo also directs the Pentagon to deny admittance to transgender individuals and to stop spending on medical treatment regimens for those currently serving,”

About Delaware Dem

Delaware politics from a liberal, progressive and Democratic perspective. Keep Delaware Blue.

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