Trump Joint Speech Hits ‘Bottom of the Barrel’ in CNN Flash Poll — Even Compared to Trump’s Other Speeches
President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress hit a record low in CNN’s flash poll — even when compared to Trump’s first-term speeches.
Trump delivered a 99-minute address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night — essentially a State of the Union address by a different name — that was chock full of memorable and newsworthy moments. Even supporters noted the intense partisanship of the speech, while disruptions and quieter protests from Democrats were a running theme.
During CNN’s coverage of Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, CNN political director David Chalian delivered the results of CNN’s flash poll, which usually oversample the party in power due to viewership and overall interest in the speeches.
In this case, Chalian explained that the audience was 14 percent more Republican than the population — and that Trump’s speech had the lowest “very positive” reaction of any such address since the poll began — lower than all 4 of Trump’s first-term addresses:
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The first results of CNN’s instant poll are in. Let’s get right to CNN’s bureau chief and political director, David Chalian.
David, how did the voters that you snap-polled feel about the speech?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, first, I just want to mention, Jake, this is a poll of speech watchers, not a poll that is representative of the country overall, or what an electorate, an election looks like. And what we know is that people who tend to be fans or partisans with the president no matter which party the president is in, tend to tune in more on speeches like this.
And that’s the case in tonight’s survey as well because 21 percent Democrat, 44 percent Republican in this sample. 35 percent independent. That’s about 14 points more Republican than the overall general population. So keep that in mind when you see these results of speech watchers.
To the results. What was your reaction to Trump’s speech? 44 percent of speech watchers in our instant poll tonight say they had a very positive reaction to Trump’s speech, 25 percent somewhat positive, 31 percent negative. How does that stack up against Donald Trump’s previous addresses to Joint Sessions of Congress or State of the Union addresses? Look here, for all the years we have data for, 44 percent very positive reaction is actually his low watermark in all our instant polls after his previous addresses.
You see, in 2019, ’18 and ’17, he was higher in terms of very positive speech reaction. And what about to his modern-day predecessors? How does this 44 percent very positive stack up?
Again, it’s the bottom of the barrel here. 51 percent in 2021, when Joe Biden gave his first joint address, were very positive. Donald Trump himself was at 57 percent in 2017. And you see that Bush and Obama even higher than that. So this was not Donald Trump’s best speech, but obviously still the plurality of speech watchers had a very positive reaction to it, Jake.
Watch above via CNN’s coverage of Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.
