Speaker A
as we mentioned earlier,
New Quinnipiac poll shows majority disapprove of Trump's immigration enforcement, believing it makes the U.S. less safe and favoring a pathway to legal status.
Key Takeaways
- Trump's immigration policies are losing support across party lines, including among Republicans and independents.
- Public opinion favors a more humane immigration approach, including pathways to citizenship.
- The administration's focus on immigration enforcement is perceived as making the country less safe.
- Political analysts warn that continued emphasis on immigration could harm Republican electoral prospects.
- There is widespread voter desire for a 'normal government' focused on the economy rather than divisive immigration policies.
Summary
- 62% of registered voters say the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti was unjustified.
- 63% disapprove of ICE's current immigration enforcement, up 6 points from last month.
- 60% want ICE agents to withdraw from Minneapolis.
- Nearly 60% want Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem removed from office.
- 61% of independents prefer a pathway to legal status over deportation of undocumented immigrants.
- Majority believe Trump's immigration approach is making the U.S. less safe.
- Political experts discuss how immigration enforcement is hurting Trump's political standing.
- Republicans and independents are increasingly opposing current immigration policies.
- There is a call for the administration to focus more on the economy and less on immigration enforcement.
- Republican leaders are worried about retaining control in upcoming elections due to these issues.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
the Trump administration is facing brutal new polling when it comes to the issue of immigration enforcement.
Speaker A
The latest Quinnipiac University poll shows 62% of registered voters believe the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti was unjustified.
Speaker A
Only 22% of Americans believe it was.
Speaker A
63% disapprove of the way ICE is enforcing immigration laws, that's up six points from just last month.
Speaker A
The poll also finds 60% of voters think ICE agents should withdraw from Minneapolis.
Speaker A
And nearly six out of 10 voters believe Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem should be removed from office.
Speaker A
Also in that poll, a majority of voters, including 61% of independents prefer giving a pathway to legal status versus just deporting undocumented immigrants.
Speaker A
And
Speaker A
a majority of voters believe the Trump administration's approach to immigration is making the country less safe.
Speaker A
Join us now, CEO of the Messina Group, Jim Messina.
Speaker A
He served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff to President Obama and ran his 2012 re-election campaign.
Speaker A
Also, senior writer at the dispatch, columnist of Bloomberg Opinion, David Drucker.
Speaker A
And the co-host of our 9:00 a.m. hour, staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire.
Speaker A
Good morning to you all.
Speaker A
Jim, I'll start with you here.
Speaker A
in the studio.
Speaker A
We know that Donald Trump starts to move his position on things when he sees it hurting him personally.
Speaker A
or seeing his his political fortunes.
Speaker A
Clearly, and this is not the first poll that has shown this, this is not going over well.
Speaker A
This immigration enforcement, the scenes we're seeing in the streets of Minneapolis with the American people.
Speaker A
including many Republicans and lots of independents.
Speaker A
So why do you suspect the administration is staying with this?
Speaker A
To the extent it is, it's some cosmetic pullbacks and changes of leadership and that kind of thing.
Speaker A
But the policy remains.
Speaker B
Yeah, their overall theories don't show weakness.
Speaker B
and continue to go on here.
Speaker B
I mean, they're not making these cosmetic changes because they woke up and said, oh my gosh.
Speaker B
This is a great idea.
Speaker B
They woke up and saw a poll.
Speaker B
and saw these numbers and Willie, you and I have not seen numbers move like this.
Speaker B
Having a majority of Republicans now say this is wrong, independents, 75% of independents say this is wrong.
Speaker B
I mean, this are these are real numbers.
Speaker B
It used to be the bedrock of the Republican Party, his coalition that he got to win the presidency.
Speaker B
was based on immigration.
Speaker B
And now when even that's falling apart.
Speaker B
They have real problems.
Speaker B
And they can't get back to the issue that really is killing them, which is the economy and affordability.
Speaker B
And so the more they continue to talk about this, the worse off they are.
Speaker B
But Donald Trump cannot help himself.
Speaker B
He cannot do this.
Speaker B
And so you saw that interview.
Speaker B
He continued to steer right into it.
Speaker B
And if you're a swing voter, what you're saying over and over and over is enough of all this.
Speaker B
Just be a normal president, enforce our borders and focus on the economy.
Speaker B
And he's just not doing that.
Speaker B
And that is why you're seeing some of these amazing election results like we saw in Texas.
Speaker C
You know, you know, Jim, you and I have been around politics long enough.
Speaker C
to see this up close.
Speaker C
And I know I I repeat a lot of things on this show over and over again.
Speaker C
As I have since Donald Trump got elected.
Speaker C
And I did it when Joe Biden was president and before that.
Speaker C
I always talk about though, 2004, Carl Rove says permanent Republican majority.
Speaker C
2006, Nancy Pelosi's elected speaker of the house.
Speaker C
2008, Barack Obama's, you know, coalition of the ascendant Republicans are finished forever.
Speaker C
2010, it's the Tea Party.
Speaker C
And the Tea Party comes in.
Speaker C
We've changed DC forever.
Speaker C
Two years later, Barack.
Speaker C
I can keep going.
Speaker C
Every two years.
Speaker C
And so when I hear idiots talk about the Overton window.
Speaker C
After like three days and all that somebody's in office.
Speaker C
Oh, they've expanded the Overton window.
Speaker C
And what is he?
Speaker C
I I always get.
Speaker C
No, no, no.
Speaker C
It's not the Overton window.
Speaker C
It's Newton's third law of motion.
Speaker C
If you want to understand American politics.
Speaker C
For every action, whether in nature or in politics, there is always an opposite and equal reaction.
Speaker C
We see it in politics over and over again.
Speaker C
You open up the border.
Speaker C
What happens?
Speaker C
Suddenly, people become very restrictive in their views toward immigration.
Speaker C
You start killing Americans in the streets in the name of immigration enforcement.
Speaker C
Suddenly, we see polls like we're seeing now.
Speaker C
Where not only do they oppose the administration's immigration policies, but they start saying, you know what?
Speaker C
We support a pathway to citizenship.
Speaker C
We support legalization.
Speaker C
And suddenly, they liberalize.
Speaker C
And and this isn't just now.
Speaker C
As you know all too well, Barack Obama wins in 2008.
Speaker C
I swear, every Democrat saying this is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
Speaker C
The next year, they lost Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.
Speaker C
This happens all the time.
Speaker C
And idiots come to Washington D.C. in both parties, overreact, and then they're shocked when they find out they don't own the future.
Speaker B
Joe, you're exactly right.
Speaker B
There's this 10 square mile logic free zone called Washington D.C.
Speaker B
And people in there don't they underestimate the normal voters.
Speaker B
Normal voters are so much smarter than people in D.C. think.
Speaker B
And they just want normal government.
Speaker B
They want to enforce the borders, they want ICE to be to be kind to people.
Speaker B
And deal with it.
Speaker B
They want people to focus on the economy.
Speaker B
Every election in the last 20 years, except for 2012, was a change election.
Speaker B
Meaning either the House or the Senate or the White House flipped control of parties.
Speaker B
That's what we're going to have in November this year when the Democrats take the House.
Speaker B
And it's exactly your point, the country goes back and forth between the two parties, begging them to just be normal and get normal things done and run a normal government.
Speaker D
And this president took power.
Speaker D
trying to expand the authority of the executive branch.
Speaker D
And we have seen him be successful, run rough shot a lot over a lot of the federal government.
Speaker D
We've seen also Congress and the Supreme Court largely abdicate their duties.
Speaker D
But as I wrote this week for the Atlantic, Republicans are quietly but still pushing for a bit of a course correction.
Speaker D
To Jim's point.
Speaker D
Talk about the economy.
Speaker D
Begging the White House to focus on that.
Speaker D
Remember earlier this year, Susie Wiles, the White House Chief of Staff, promised that President Trump would make a domestic trip each and every week this year to talk about the economy.
Speaker D
To campaign for Republicans because he did so little travel last year.
Speaker D
Well, this week, no travel.
Speaker D
They've already abandoned that promise.
Speaker D
We'll see if it's revived.
Speaker D
And instead, the president is, maybe it's slightly softer rhetoric, but he's staying with his immigration push, he's staying with gunboat diplomacy, Iran being the latest example.
Speaker D
And he's staying on vanity projects like the West the East Wing turning into a ballroom.
Speaker D
The Kennedy Center and the like.
Speaker D
And and David Drucker, you and I are sitting in the 10 square mile logic free zone that is Washington D.C. this morning.
Speaker E
We'll do our best.
Speaker D
We'll do our best.
Speaker D
We're trying to fight through that.
Speaker D
Um, and you know, what are you hearing here?
Speaker D
Because those polls that we just ran through.
Speaker D
are brutal.
Speaker D
They're brutal for the president, they're brutal for his party, and they're brutal on issues they're supposed to be his strength.
Speaker D
As you talk to Republicans, I mean, they can read the numbers too.
Speaker D
How worried are they?
Speaker E
They're worried.
Speaker E
Right?
Speaker E
I mean, look, first of all,
Speaker E
political professionals that I've been emphasizing this, right, the people that are actually actively advising congressional candidates.
Speaker E
that work on campaigns.
Speaker E
They get the joke.
Speaker E
They know what's happening.
Speaker E
Right? And then Republican leaders whose job it is to try and preserve these thin majorities.
Speaker E
And it's going to be more difficult to do so in the House than it will be in the Senate.
Speaker E
At least as things stand today.
Speaker E
But but the leadership understands the gravity of what they're facing.
Speaker E
They understand the history Joe just talked about.
Speaker E
They conducted their own polling.
Speaker E
And they know how this goes.
Speaker E
And a lot of them have been around long enough to see this pendulum swing.
Speaker E
But of course, you always want to put a good, you know, face out to the public.
Speaker E
Because the minute you acknowledge the trouble you're in, the headlines say, even Republicans admit that they're in a lot of trouble.
Speaker E
There's also a certain way you want to talk to the president.
Speaker E
because he doesn't like bad news.
Speaker E
And he lives in his own bubble.
Speaker E
Look, one of the reasons why, and this has happened to Democrats.
Speaker E
But here we're talking about Republicans because they're the ones in trouble.
Speaker E
One of the reasons why it's hard for Republicans to get their arms around this.
Speaker E
is because too few of them represent states and districts.
Speaker E
where they have a variety of voters who are going to tell them that their policies or their focus has gone astray.
Speaker E
Right? So when you represent a red district in the House and everybody in that district is watching conservative or populist or pro-Trump media.
Speaker E
When you represent a red state and it's like that.
Speaker E
And you go home.
Speaker E
You know what everybody tells you?
Speaker E
Mostly.
Speaker E
Keep fighting the fight.
Speaker E
Trump's right.
Speaker E
Don't back down.
Speaker E
And and so the the feedback loop is very dangerous.
Speaker E
You know, whereas you're Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania one.
Speaker E
Or you're a Republican in North Carolina, you're very well aware of how voters are reacting.
Speaker E
to the president's policies and your support for the president's policies.
Speaker E
Finally, you know, what I'd say is, and this is where sometimes politicians talk themselves into everything's okay.
Speaker E
They look at issue polls.
Speaker E
Well, you know, everybody believes illegal immigrant criminals should be deported.
Speaker E
Well, yeah, they do.
Speaker E
Like a majority of people.
Speaker E
That's one of the reasons Trump won.
Speaker E
But tactics matter.
Speaker E
Politics isn't just you support an issue.
Speaker E
It's like healthcare reform.
Speaker E
Find me a voter that's that's against healthcare reform.
Speaker E
You know where the fight is?
Speaker E
Obviously.
Speaker E
How are we going to go about it?
Speaker E
Where are the winners and losers?
Speaker E
How's that how's that going to affect me and my state versus you and your state?
Speaker E
And it's simple.
Speaker E
Politics is simple.
Speaker E
But everybody complicates it.
Speaker E
Because in part, they don't want to deal with the problem they have.
Speaker E
Because they don't know how to deal with it.
Speaker C
You know, the the way they they could have dealt with this from the beginning is way.
Speaker C
We said they should have dealt with it from the beginning, take a victory lap every week.
Speaker C
On the southern border.
Speaker C
It's a great success.
Speaker C
Americans will celebrate that.
Speaker C
And focus on the hardened criminals that you get deported.
Speaker C
Unfortunately,
Speaker C
only 7%, 7% of the people who are being uh uh accosted now.
Speaker F
A lot of U.S. citizens.
Speaker C
And and and and picked up by ICE.
Speaker F
A mistake.
Speaker C
Oh, a lot of U.S. citizens.
Speaker F
By the way, really quickly.
Speaker C
By the way, if.
Speaker F
What is ICE for exactly?
Speaker C
People want to understand why the reality is what it is.
Speaker C
What David said about people going home and being isolated.
Speaker C
That's the danger of gerrymandering.
Speaker C
The danger of gerrymandering for parties.
Speaker C
They get stuck in a feedback loop.
Speaker C
They hear the same thing over and over again.
Speaker C
They all watch the same uh MAGA networks.
Speaker C
Uh they all talk to each other.
Speaker C
And what happens is you have you only have like 30, 35 swing districts left in the House.
Speaker C
And all those break sharply, in this case, most likely break sharply blue.
Speaker C
In past cases, it would break sharply red.
Speaker C
So, yeah.
Speaker C
There it's and and so good luck getting somebody in districts that's 80% Republican and 20% Democratic.
Speaker C
Good luck getting them to step out and say what's best for the party overall.
Speaker C
They're not going to do it.
Topics:Trumpimmigration enforcementQuinnipiac pollICEAlex Pretti shootingHomeland SecurityChristie Noempathway to citizenshipU.S. safetyRepublican Party
