CNN’s Harry Enten Dunks on Tucker Carlson After Revealing MAGA Loves Trump’s Iran Strike: ‘He Doesn’t Speak for the Majority’
CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten argued MAGA voters made it clear that Tucker Carlson does not speak for the majority of them by approving of President Donald Trump’s Iran strikes far more than voters overall.
On CNN News Central on Tuesday, Enten showed that overall Trump’s strikes over the weekend against Iran are historically “unpopular,” but the actions have been embraced by most Republican voters despite talk of a “civil war” brewing among Trump’s most vocal supporters.
The president announced a ceasefire following his strikes, though he also accused Iran and Israel of both violating the ceasefire on Tuesday morning. Escalating fighting between Israel and Iran, and questions about the United States’ potential involvement kicked off fiery debates between right-wing figures like Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin, with the former arguing for diplomacy and avoiding another Middle East war while the latter pushed for a far more aggressive approach to confronting Iran.
“I think there’s this idea, okay, maybe the MAGA base wouldn’t necessarily like this. Look, this is Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” Enten declared on Tuesday with anchor John Berman.
According to averages taken from a CNN/SSRS poll and a Reuters/Ipsos survey, 76% of Republicans back Trump’s Iran strikes, while 18% disapprove.
“Now, I will note that is a bit higher than Donald Trump disapproval rating within the Republican Party,” Enten said of the 18% disapproval, “but overall, Republicans are with Donald Trump on this. Tucker Carlson be darned. The bottom line is he does not speak for the majority of the Republican base.”
Berman noted the rapidly-changing situation could seriously impact that approval.
“All this could change depending on what the ceasefire holds or not. It could become more popular if the ceasefire holds, less popular if it doesn’t,” he said.
Enten noted earlier in the segment that voters overall are much less pleased with Trump’s strikes, something the reporter called “surprising” considering how voters responded to similar past military actions.
Trump’s net approval rating on the weekend strikes was negative 12 points in the CNN survey and negative 9 points in the Reuters poll.
“Why am I so surprised from a historical perspective? Because usually airstrikes rate fairly highly,” Enten said, showing a more than 50% positive net approval for airstrikes on ISIS in 2014.
Watch above via CNN.
