The statue dilemma

Biden and Pelosi publicly opposed the taking down of statues honoring our founding fathers who owned slaves, but why exactly did they do that?

Full Transcript:

Scott Rasmussen  0:08  

Good morning, Scott Rasmussen here. Welcome to my podcast: Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. Today, we're gonna be looking at a double-edged sword faced by the Biden campaign. Yesterday, I did a similar thing looking at the President's campaign. I noted that his base support was, his base voters were a great source of strength for his campaign. But they were a potential weakness because they didn't want to acknowledge they needed anybody beyond the base. Tomorrow, I'm going to take a look at the issue the Democrats are pushing that might help Republicans keep control of the Senate and certainly make it, give them a boost in some of the most closely contested Senate races. 

But today, we're looking at the Biden campaign. And, you know, this is a situation where the Biden campaign is running as a challenger. The primary selling point of their candidate is: 'I'm not named Donald Trump.' Joe Biden doesn't attract anywhere near the fierce loyalty that Donald Trump does from his supporters. In fact, about half of all Biden voters say he's just the lesser of two evils. Earlier in the year, the polling looked like it would be very close and competitive in a Biden-Trump matchup. In recent weeks, over the last month or two, Biden has opened up a pretty sizable lead. In my polling, it's about 10 points. And lots of reasons for that. Obviously, the pandemic shook everything up and 40 million people being thrown out of work is something unprecedented. You know, the last time we had a pandemic like this, they didn't even keep unemployment statistics. So, we're in uncharted territory. 

But there's also the civil rights issues. You know, ever since the killing of George Floyd, there has been a spotlight and a focus on this: the racial inequalities, the racial injustice that exists in America. It's an echo of our times, you know, of slavery and Jim Crow laws. These echoes are still with us and they are still creating challenges for our society. And as long as the public is focused on those civil rights issues, well, that's really bad news for President Trump. You know, he is perceived as someone who, and again, you know, his supporters would deny it, but he is perceived as someone who is racist. Many believe he actually wants America to be a white supremacist nation. So, when the focus is on civil rights, that's good news for Joe Biden, bad news for President Trump. However, you know, the people who are most aggressively out there pushing the civil rights agenda right now, while they are a great source of strength for Joe Biden, might also go a little bit too far. And then this gives us a hint as to why President Trump talked about defending statues of people like George Washington the other night, in his, I guess, in his Friday-night speech. The reality is among the people who strongly disapprove of the President, the people who Joe Biden is absolutely counting on to win this election, to get out and enthusiastically vote for him. Those who say anybody not named Trump is my candidate. Well, a majority of them are also opposed to tearing down statues honoring George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. 

Today's number of the day is 57. 57% of those who strongly oppose President Trump also are opposed to tearing down statues honoring George Washington. In the B-block, I'm going to talk a little bit more about that group and why they are so important in this campaign, so important that Joe Biden is counting on them and Donald Trump is raising the issue of tearing down statues. While you're waiting for that, please take a moment and share this podcast with your friends and be sure to subscribe to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day.

Welcome back to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. I'm Scott and the number today is 57. 57% of those who strongly disapprove of President Trump are also opposed to taking down statues honoring George Washington. A majority are also opposed to taking down statues honoring Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Jefferson. Now, this number does a lot of things. First, it helps explain why both Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi have come out recently and said, 'oh, we're great. We love the idea of taking down statues honoring Confederates. But let's leave the founding president alone.' Nancy Pelosi said the reason for this was it's about treason, not race. People who fought for the Confederacy engaged in an act of rebellion against the United States. Well, Pelosi and Biden don't want to get caught up in the issue of taking down statues honoring George Washington. They know that's a political loser. Only 24% of voters nationwide support it. And, by the way, that's the same reason President Trump wants to keep talking about this issue. It is a source of potential weakness for the Biden campaign. And, just like we talked yesterday, where the President's base was both, you know, a source of strength and a potential weakness. Those who are engaging right now in civil rights protests are a great source of support for the Biden campaign. Talking about civil rights and our history of racial injustice and trying to do something about it highlights a major weakness for President Trump. But if they get carried away, and there's two big possibilities are getting carried away. One is in the realm of violence in general. If it becomes too, if the protests become more violent than peaceful, that's one problem. But the other is if the issue shifts from how do we make America better today to how do we tear down the legacy of America's legends, people like George Washington, that would be a problem for the Biden campaign. And the numbers that express it so clearly, I took a look at who are the people who are most likely to be turned off by this focus on statues. Well, turns out that about one out of six voters nationwide, 17%, both strongly disapprove of President Trump and strongly oppose taking down statues honoring Washington 16-- or 17% of voters is a huge chunk of the electorate. And make no mistake about it. This is a chunk of the electorate that Joe Biden is absolutely counting on to put him into the White House. These are voters who are strongly opposed to President Trump and want to vote for anybody not named Trump. Well, what are the demographics of this group? First of all, most of them are over the age of 55. And that's significant because older folks vote more often than younger folks. Secondly, they tend to be living in the suburbs, a solid majority are in the suburbs. We also have 35% of these voters, a third of them are politically independent. They are not hardcore Democrats. This is a group that President Trump thinks he can get to maybe shift to him or maybe stay home or maybe vote for Bernie Sanders or a Libertarian candidate or somebody else. And all he needs to do is peel away a few points from this group and joe biden's reelection prospects are quite a bit smaller. So, that's the double-edged sword for Joe Biden. He has a focus on issue on civil rights that is working very well for him right now. But it is right on the edge of going overboard in the electoral sense to a point where it begins to turn off more voters than it turns on. In the C-block, I'm going to talk about some other numbers and how we can measure you know, where does this stand? What will it look like? When will we know if this issue is helping or hurting Joe Biden?

Welcome back to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. I'm Scott and today's number is 57. A majority of those who strongly disapprove of Donald Trump, 57%, also oppose taking down statues honoring people like George Washington. This issue, the focus on civil rights and racial injustice and inequality, has been very good for Joe Biden to this point. It's part of the reason, it's a big part of the reason, why he's opened up a double digit lead over President Trump in the election campaign. But, like the President's strong base of support, it's a double-edged sword. And there are two ways this could create problems for Joe Biden. The first is if it begins to be perceived as more violent. Right now, our latest numbers show that 45% of voters say, so far, the civil rights protests have been mostly peaceful. 46% say no, they've tended to be plagued by violence. If those numbers shift, so that a growing percentage say they're, the protests, are violent, that will mean that we'll create some problems for the Biden campaign. 

Second thing that we're going to look at is what are the issues that people care about? You know, all throughout this election season and bluntly going back for years and years and years, the top two issues are the economy and healthcare. And this year, they take on a special urgency because of the pandemic and the economic crisis we're facing. But, something that nobody expected when the year began, the number three issue on voters minds is civil rights. And as long as the focus remains on civil rights, that's a plus for Biden and a minus for Trump. However, the number four issue on voters minds, right now, is law and order, a phrase that you're starting to hear the President use, and he's trying to tie it into, we need to have law and order so that people won't take down statues of people like George Washington. If we begin to see in the polls that more and more people are concerned about law and order and less and less people are concerned about civil rights, then we'll know that Joe Biden's campaign is in a little bit of trouble. As I said yesterday, both campaigns are faced with this dynamic. They each have some enthusiastic support that might cause them problems. Right now, Biden is ahead, but it's a very volatile year. So, anything can happen and we're just going to have to watch how this plays out. Now, after having talked yesterday about the President's campaign, and today about Biden's, tomorrow, I'm going to look at the Senate and more specifically, an issue that Democrats are pushing, because it's in line with their civil rights agenda. It's in line with the ideas that are helping the Biden campaign, but it's also an issue that might help Republicans retain control of the U.S. Senate. I'm Scott Rasmussen. I'll be back tomorrow morning 8 a.m. Looking forward to chatting then. Have a great day.