New Poll Shows 47% Of Voters Blame Trump & Republicans For Shutdown

A new poll published on Tuesday reveals nearly half of American voters blame President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers for the partial government shutdown, which on Thursday entered its 20th day.

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll — which surveyed 1,989 registered voters — shows 47 percent of voters think Trump is mostly responsible for the shutdown, which after almost three weeks is close to becoming the longest one in U.S. history. Meanwhile, 5 percent of those surveyed said Republican legislators are to blame and approximately one-third (33 percent) of respondents point the finger at congressional Democrats. This follows a similar Reuters/Ipsos poll released in late December, which also found 47 percent of Americans blamed Trump for the shutdown, which the president has reportedly preferred to call a “strike.”

The shutdown began at midnight on Dec. 21 after lawmakers failed to pass bills to keep the government funded through early February. Trump has also vowed to keep the government shut for as long as necessary until Democrats pledged to provide $5.7 billion in funds for the southern border wall — or steel barrier, as it is now planned — as a way to curb illegal immigration from Mexico. Around 800,000 federal workers have been left without pay amid the shutdown.

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Trump held a ten-minute nationally televised address on the barrier and border security — which he called a “crisis” and a “national emergency” — from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, although it was blasted by Democrats and the media for containing dozens of lies. Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York — the Senate minority leader — and California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker responded to the president’s address and earned higher television ratings despite a visually awkward rebuttal speech for which they shared a podium.

The recent poll also shows less than half of Americans (42 percent) consider border security a “crisis.”

Recent data shows the number of total border crossings by undocumented immigrants is at a 12-year-low, and arrests for such crossings have also decreased.

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