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10 points
An Emerson Polling survey released Tuesday found both former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leading President Trump by 10 points nationally, 55% to 45%. Sen. Elizabeth Warren also led Trump in the survey, 53% to 47%, while Sen. Kamala Harris and Mayor Pete Buttigieg both led him 52% to 48%.
“He’s not taking any crap. I mean, he’s taking on political correctness; he’s taking fights that a lot of people want to see fought. The forgotten man that he speaks to is a person that finally feels like they’re being taken seriously, they’re being paid attention to. And he’s concerned about their issues. … That is the guttural core of what I would call the party base right now, the Trump base.”
— Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), telling PBS Newshour that President Trump’s popularity is because he stands up for the “forgotten man.”
“Some pundits and voters say one candidate — former Vice President Joe Biden — is the most electable, so they tell pollsters they want Biden, which produces media coverage that reinforces the idea that Biden is most electable, which then filters back down to voters concerned about ‘electability.’”
“Pete has a black problem. I don’t know of one black person out of Indiana that supports him.”
— Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), quoted by the Daily Beast, on Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
23
First Read: “Trump mentioned Obama, his wife and ‘Obamacare’ 23 times in his interview on Meet the Press — when he was asked only four direct questions that involved the former president. … And some of those mentions contained outright falsehoods.”
22%
A new Associated Press-NORC poll finds just 22% of Democrats registered to vote say they know a lot about the presidential candidates’ positions, while 62% say they know a little. And only 35% say they’re paying close attention to the campaign, with almost two-thirds saying they’re paying some or no attention.
3
First Read notes that in less than three weeks, President Trump has made three different retreats: Reaching a deal with Mexico to avert tariffs – a deal that largely consisted of actions that Mexico had already agreed to; backing down on military strikes against Iran for shooting down a U.S. drone; delaying his plan for nationwide raids to deport undocumented immigrants.
“It is not a tenable strategy… His message is that he’s the guy who can beat Donald Trump and he is viewed as the least risky choice. Over time, if the only interactions he has is around these screwups and gaffes, then he is going to start losing that message.”
— David Axelrod, quoted by the Daily Beast, saying Joe’s Biden’s media avoidance strategy isn’t viable.
100
Nearly 100 internal Trump transition vetting documents leaked to Axios identify a host of “red flags” about officials who went on to get some of the most powerful jobs in the U.S. government.
