Bidens Personal Traits Viewed Less Positively Than Last Fall
Public perceptions of Bidens personal traits have turned more negative over the course of his presidency, largely paralleling the decline in his approval ratings, with some exceptions.
While a majority of Americans say stands up for what he believes in describes Biden very or fairly well, public assessments of whether Biden is honest and cares about the needs of ordinary people are more divided. About half say honest describes Biden at least fairly well, while a similar share say it does not. Similarly, about half characterize him as caring about the needs of ordinary people, while roughly as many say this is not a good descriptor.
The publics evaluation is more negative on other measures: About two-thirds say inspiring does not describe Biden well, while nearly as many say the same for mentally sharp. And although 44% say a good role model describes Biden at least fairly well, a larger share say this does not describe the president well.
While Bidens ratings on each of these traits have declined substantially over the course of his presidency, the sharpest decline is seen in views of Bidens mental sharpness and this shift is particularly pronounced among Democrats.
The trajectory of opinion follows a similar, if less stark, pattern for the other traits asked about in the survey.
Video Of Trump Saying He Now Had Tallest Manhattan Building On 9/11 Goes Viral On Anniversary
A video of former President Donald Trump‘s unusual first reaction to the terrorist attacks from September 11, 2001, has gone viral on the tragedy’s 20th anniversary.
As Trump made surprise trips to police and fire stations in New York City on Saturday, a resurfaced short clip of his call into the WWOR-TV station on the day of the terror attacks two decades ago drew significant attention on .
“It was an amazing phone call. 40 Wall Street actually was the second tallest building in downtown Manhattan and it was, actually before the World Trade Center, the tallest. And when they built the World Trade Center it became known as the second tallest and now it’s the tallest,” the future president told WWOR at the time.
The video has been watched more than 231,000 times since it was shared by former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski on the 20th anniversary of the tragedy Saturday morning.
20 years ago, Donald Trumps first comment to the media was to mention, after the towers came down, that a building he owned was now the tallest in lower Manhattan.
Ron Filipkowski
Nearly 3,000 people were killed after two hijacked commercial planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a fourth into a field in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 20 years ago Saturday. The terror attacks were orchestrated by al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
Both Parties Eye Pennsylvania
The state is vital to Democrats’ hopes as well. They want to pick up a US Senate seat by propelling Lt Gov John Fetterman to victory.
The governor’s race has taken on extra significance with Mr Mastriano’s landslide win in the Republican primary. He attended the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Congress and played a key role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania.
Should he win the governorship, he would have significant power over the state’s election implementation.
To oppose him, Democrats have put forth the state’s attorney general, Josh Shapiro, and President Biden held several high-profile events in the state in recent days to help whip up the Democratic base.
In fact, he also visited Wilkes-Barre, on 30 August to give a major speech about guns and public safety and two days ago he gave a primetime address in Philadelphia.
He argued that Trump’s ideology – which he called “Maga Republicans” after his predecessor’s famous campaign slogan – threatened American democracy.
“Not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, are Maga Republicans,” Mr Biden said.
“But there’s no question the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the Maga Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.”
On Saturday, Mr Trump called Mr Biden’s address the most “vicious hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president”.
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Deflect To Other Shiny Objects
When cornered, Trumps approach is to deflect, attack others, and distract from what hes accused of doing, a strategy that often goes hand in hand with his denials.
In the 1970s, when Trump was under investigation for housing discrimination, his lawyer Roy Cohn accused the Department of Justice of using Gestapo tactics and called investigators storm troopers.
In 2016, during Trumps first presidential campaign, Trump criticized the federal judge handling a lawsuit against his business Trump University, saying Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel was totally biased and unfair. Trump was campaigning at the time on a promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico, and during an appearance on CNN, Trump said Curiel should recuse himself, arguing this judge is of Mexican heritage, Im building a wall. Trump ended up agreeing to a $25 million settlement in the case.
Last month, four days after the Mar-a-Lago search, Trump compared his predicament, where he kept hundreds of government documents in unsecured personal boxes, to the orderly and conventional process by which former President Barack Obama set up his presidential library. Obama has worked with the National Archives to properly secure the presidential records and make them available for his library in Chicago.
Distrust Cuts Both Ways
Trumps antipathy toward the career federal workforce may have been sealed on Inauguration Day, after a National Park Service employee retweeted Twitter messages comparing crowd sizes at the 2017 ceremony with those of the 2008 inauguration of President Obama. The effect, not favorable to Trump, prompted the new president to phone acting NPS Director Michael Reynolds to complain that his crowd size was underplayed.
One can see how this might have informed Trumps impression of a deep state. Just six weeks later, Trump accused President Obama of wiretapping his conversations at Trump Tower in New York.
More than half of federal employees had said the previous October they would vote for Hillary Clinton, according to a Government Executive/Government Business Council survey. Just 34 percent were for Trump.
Campaign donations from federal employees for the 2016 cycle skewed toward Democrats, in some agencies by a factor of 10-to-1, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In recent months, the news media, which Trump often derides as fake, have published numerous essays and interviews with disgruntled federal employees, including one from a former State Department employee who accused Secretary Rex Tillerson of an inherent distrust of the State Department and career officers.
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Of Course He’s Smartbutour Leaders Are Dumb
At the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on February 28, Trump repeated his praise of Putin as a clever leader and claimed that the crisis in Ukraine wouldn’t be happening if he was still in the White House.
“The problem is not that Putin is smart, which of course he’s smart, but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb,” Trump said, prompting cheers and applause from the audience. “So dumb. They so far allowed him to get away with this travesty and assault on humanity. That’s what it is, an assault on humanity.”
Trump also said Putin was “playing Biden like a drum” and that he got along well with Putin as well as China’s Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Has Donald Trump Been To New York Since Ending His Presidency
On March 9, 2021, Trump was seen at his first trip to New York City since exiting the White House.
Trump was seen leaving Trump Tower in Manhattan in the afternoon after spending two days to look under the hood of his family company that is under investigation by state prosecutors, The Daily Mail reported.
The 45th president had arrived at Trump Tower the night of March 7, with Security Service and New York Police Department personnel and was not spotted again until he departed on Tuesday, March 9, 2021.
It marked the first time Trump has visited New York City since he left the White House and moved to Florida.
On March 9, 2021, Secret Service and NYPD vehicles parked around the building as Trump waved to fans that gathered near his car.
Trumps son Donald Trump Jr trailed his father and got into another vehicle in the motorcade.
A source told the New York Daily News that Trump wanted to re-familiarize with the Trump Organization and his various business interests since returning to civilian life.
The source told the newspaper: “Hes quite curious about his businesses and his employees, his organization, and is eager to look under the hood.
“Hes not entirely sure of the role he will play, but he misses it, for sure.”
Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance and New York state attorney general Letitia James have active investigations into Trumps business dealings and recently issues subpoenas for the former President and his two children, Ivanka and Don Jr.
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You Wont Believe What Donald Trump Is Saying About Putin And Biden Nowhe Must Be Kidding
SheFindsspoke at a Republican fundraiserJust The News
The White House denounced Trump’s request to the Russian president, and promptly released a statement to do damage control. “What kind of American let alone an ex-president thinks that this is the right time to enter into a scheme with Vladimir Putin and brag about his connections to Vladimir Putin?” White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said. “There’s only one, and it’s Donald Trump.”
This isnt the first time that Trump has asked Russia to help him get one over on his political opponents. Back in 2016, during his presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton, Trump infamously said that Russian hackers could help him get hold of Clinton’s emails. He said at the time: “Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails.”
And if you thought Trump was done with talking about Putin, then think again, as the former president was very vocal about his thoughts on the Russian leader in his explosive interview with Piers Morgan for his new talk show, Piers Morgan Uncensored. In the interview, Trump told the former Good Morning Britain host what he would say to Putin if he was still in The White House, while slamming Biden for the way he is handling the ongoing war in Ukraine and more specifically, criticizing him for not threatening the Russian leader with a nuclear strike.
A Majority Of Republicans Want Trump To Stay In Politics About Four
Overall, roughly three-in-ten Americans say Donald Trump should remain a major national political figure, while two-thirds say he should not. However, there are wide partisan divides on this question. About six-in-ten Republicans and Republican leaners say the former president should continue to play a major role in national politics, while nearly all Democrats and Democratic leaners say he should not.
The share of Republicans saying Trump should continue to be a major national political figure has declined slightly since September 2021 .
The 63% of Republicans who would like to see Trump remain a major figure include 39% who would like to see Trump run for president himself in 2024. The remainder say while they would like Trump to remain a national political figure, they would prefer he use his position to support another presidential candidate that shares his views.
Although Republicans and Republican leaners generally say Trump should remain a major national political figure, there are demographic differences within the GOP on this question.
Moderate and liberal Republicans are less likely than conservative Republicans to say Trump should remain on the national political stage .
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Why Is Trump Openly Embracing Qanon Now
- Save this story for later.
- Save this story for later.
Over the weekend, the New York Times and the Washington Post published lengthy articles on the threat to American democracy posed by election deniers and an increasingly unrepresentative electoral system. Both pieces were well worth reading, but they didnt focus on a more immediate threat to democratic values and the rule of law: Donald Trumps apparent attempts to publicly intimidate federal prosecutors who are investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his failure to return classified documents to the National Archives and Records Administration.
Whats going on? One possibility is that Trump has finally lost what remained of his judgment and gone full tilt to a place where many leading Democrats are Satan-worshipping pedophiles, the coronavirus is a Chinese bioweapon, and J.F.K., Jr., is alive. A more likely theory, put forward by the Posts Philip Bump, is that Trump is effectively asking QAnon to stand back and stand by for his 2024 election campaign, just as, during a September, 2020, Presidential debate, he asked the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by. That sounds plausible. But it seems at least equally possible that Trump is motivated by a more immediate concernthe multiple state and federal investigations of his conductand that hes signalling to prosecutors that he wont go quietly, so they had better beware.
H.H.: What kind of problems, Mr. President?
The Potential To Do ‘big Stuff’
Graham, who is currently facing calls to testify in a criminal probe related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, said Trump would now be able to position himself as the president of hope and action as the political and economic climate darkens under President Joe Biden.
Here’s what Trump might say, said Graham.
“Alright, you’ve lived through four years of this. You get a chance to start over,” he said.
“Remember me? I may not be your cup of tea, but when I was president, our border was secure, we had the lowest illegal crossings in 40 years. I did it,” he continued.
“When I was president, I stood up to China and they listened. When I was president, we had the strongest military since Ronald Reagan. When I was president, I destroyed the caliphate. When I was president, we had conservative judges, not liberal judges. He has a story to tell,” said Graham.
Ultimately, however, Graham acknowledged that it may take more than policy pledges for Trump to regain favor among American voters.
“His problem is personal,” he said. “His policies have stood the test of time. But has he worn the American people out in terms of his personality? Time will tell.”
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What Trump Has Said About Putin Since Russian Invasion Of Ukraine Began
Donald Trump has made headlines for his comments about Vladimir Putin during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The former U.S. president received backlash from Democrats and Republicans after describing the Russian president as “very savvy” for declaring two separatist regions of eastern UkraineDonetsk and Luhanskas independent days before launching a full-scale attack.
“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraineof UkrainePutin declares it as independent,” Trump said on The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show on February 22.
Even close Trump allies like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and former Vice President Mike Pence have split with his views on Putin. McCarthy last week condemned the Russian leader as “evil.”
But Trump has doubled down on his remarks since February 24, when Russian forces entered Ukraine on three fronts. He also has accused the media and RINOS of distorting his comments about Putin.
Here’s everything Trump has said about Putin since the Ukraine invasion began.
Punching Back At The Department Of Justice
The former president is currently involved in a legal tussle with federal authorities over a cache of classified documents that the FBI seized last month.
Government authorities say Mr Trump improperly took and stored White House documents, including some marked “top secret” at his Florida home – the Mar-a-Lago resort.
Federal prosecutors now say he may have obstructed the investigation into his possession of the documents.
Mr Trump has previously spun investigations and attacks against him as “witch hunts”, and it was no different on Saturday.
He came out swinging, calling the FBI’s search “the shameful raid and break-in on my home in Mar-a-Lago” a “travesty”.
The former president has long built his appeal by casting himself and his supporters as political outsiders and persecuted figures.
Mr Trump linked his personal legal troubles to his supporters’ political frustrations, claiming: “We are being assaulted⦠by the FBI and DOJ.”
“It was not just my home that was raided⦠it was the hopes and dreams of every citizen who I’ve been fighting for since the moment I came down the golden escalator in 2015, wanting to represent the people,” he added, drawing boos from the crowd.
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Donald Trump: What We Learned From His Rally In Pennsylvania
Donald Trump has called President Joe Biden an “enemy of the state” at his first rally since the FBI searched his Florida resort for sensitive files.
Speaking to thousands of supporters in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the ex-president accused Mr Biden of weaponising the FBI against him.
Mr Trump branded the search “one of the most shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history”.
He was in the state to promote two Republican candidates.
Dr Mehmet Oz is running for the US Senate, and state Senator Doug Mastriano is in the race to become Pennsylvania’s next governor.
Both spoke only briefly – as always, the rally on Saturday night was really about one person: the headliner.
Mr Trump, 76, spent the first part of his nearly two-hour speech criticising the FBI search early last month.
FBI agents conducting the search found dozens of empty folders marked as classified, and top secret files were recovered from his personal office.
Mr Trump, who is being investigated over his handling of classified records, denies wrongdoing.
The former president also returned to other familiar themes at the Pennsylvania rally: false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, attacks on rivals in the Democratic Party, and promises to “save our country”.
Several times, he called for people who deal drugs to receive the death penalty.
Here are four key things you need to know about Donald Trump’s rally.
