There was a small but significant change in tone from the Democratic Party and their supporters this week as yet another round of riots kicked off in yet another American city. While buildings burned in Kenosha, Wisconsin, everyone from CNN’s Don Lemon to presidential candidate Joe Biden suddenly found the courage to condemn the chaos. This sudden change of heart has nothing to do with their sympathies for the residents and business owners in these communities, of course. It has everything to do with signs that this urban destruction is having a deteriorating effect on Biden’s polling lead.
The latest sign that things are going wrong for the Democrats came in a Zogby Analytics poll. In it, Trump’s approval rating has climbed to 52%, the highest on record.
From the Washington Examiner:
What’s more, his approval rating among minorities was solid and, in the case of African Americans, shockingly high. Zogby said 36% of blacks approve of the president, as do 37% of Hispanics and 35% of Asians. Approval among independent voters is also up, to 44%. And “intriguingly,” said Zogby, 23% of Democrats approve of Trump.
It was the latest to show that Trump’s approval went up during the Democratic National Convention. Rasmussen Reports had it at 51% at the end of the convention. In a shock from past election years, Joe Biden got no convention poll bounce, according to a newly released Reuters/Ipsos poll.
In his conversation with reporter Paul Bedard, Jonathan Zogby said that the spike in Trump’s approval rating shows that this race is much closer than many pundits have realized. He said that there is a core group of as many as 20% of voters who have not made up their mind; it will be up to either Trump or Biden to pull those voters over to their arguments between now and November.
But Zogby said that images of looting and rioting were surely helping Trump.
“Another factor continuing to help the president’s high approval rating is a rise in crime in our nation’s biggest cities. Unlike a year ago, the president is performing well with voters in large cities. It’s highly likely he is benefiting from the uptick in violence. His law-and-order message is resonating with urban voters at the moment,” he said.
Zogby went on to say that Trump is making inroads with black voters – a movement that could crush any shot that Biden has of winning the election.
“The president is also improving his job approval numbers with African Americans and millennial African Americans, which is a trend we witnessed last year,” he said. “Trump has been making the case that he has done more for African American voters, by way of prison reform and previously low black unemployment, than Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, both of whom have been accused by the president for increasing incarceration among African Americans for generations on nonviolent drug charges.”
Stay tuned. A month or so ago, Biden was practically picking out new curtains for the Oval Office. Now the tide may be turning in a big way.
