Earnest: Midterm Voters ‘Strongly Support’ Obama’s Policies
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest argued today that when you look at the actual data, the people who voted in a Republican wave this week have “strongly supported” President Obama‘s policies. ABC News’ Jonathan Karl was taken aback by this particular claim.
“I do think that there is ample data,” Earnest said, “to indicate that a lot of the policies that the president himself has advocated are strongly supported by those that participated in the election.”
There were several things Earnest singled out from this week’s exit polls: support for a path to citizenship, the government’s handling of Ebola and ISIS, and how Obama has handled the economy. And what the exit polls showed on those issues was that 1) about half of all voters said they support a path to citizenship, 2) only 44 percent of voters giving the government good marks on Ebola, 3) a majority supporting airstrikes against ISIS, and 4) 7 in 10 Americans expressing concerns about the current state of the economy.
And as for Obamacare, 47 percent of voters said the health care law went too far, while 22 said it was good as is and 26 percent said it didn’t go far enough.
Karl asked Earnest bewilderedly if he’s honestly arguing the GOP wave election was also a “reaffirmation of the president’s policies.” Earnest denied that, but did insist, as Obama did yesterday, that the clear message of the midterms is that voters want both parties to work together.
Watch the video below, via ABC News:
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[h/t Jon Karl]
[image via screengrab]
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