A new CNN poll acknowledges something that must terribly bother the network: 54% of respondents in the poll believe that President Trump will win reelection, a huge eleven-point hike from last December, when that number was 43%.
Speaking on CNN on Wednesday, host John Berman said disbelievingly, “They believe the president, despite everything, will win reelection next year.” He added, shocked, “What’s more, that number is up double digits since December.”
Turning to his panel, Berman asked CNN political director David Chalian, “David, I want to start with you. This is always an interesting number to me ‘cause often it does go hand-in-hand with success; people end up knowing who’s going to win beforehand often. What do you attribute this shift to?”
Chalian noted that the rise in Trump’s numbers largely were responses from dispirited Democrats who reluctantly see the strength of Trump’s chances:
The psychology of the voters, right? People also like to be with a winner, so it gives that you sense. If you look under the numbers, John, one of the things that you can attribute the increase in that perception to is actually to Democrats, to people who disapprove of Donald Trump’s job performance. They did not think he was going to win re-election, but we should be clear, three-quarters of them still don’t think that, now a quarter of Democrats in this poll believe he is going to win re-election. That’s up when we tested this in December, that’s up from 14%. So even though they’re rooting against it, they seem, Democrats, to be a little more of the mind that he may actually come out victorious.
Hilariously, Berman than asked, “Is that good?”
Chalian himself is no fan of Trump. As Caleb Howe noted last November, Chalian ripped into President Trump after Trump alleged fraud and misconduct in the vote count and recount in Florida. Chalian stated, “I think that he is dismantling a fundamental pillar of our democracy, which is the sanctity of the vote. And he wants to discredit election results that he thinks aren’t in his favor. His dismantling of institutional pillars of our Democracy–It’s just so offensive to hear him talk this way.”
Howe pointed out that Chalian didn’t mention numerous Democrats or media personalities who had questioned the voting results of last November’s election, including CNN’s own Van Jones, writing of the Georgia gubernatorial race and failed Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams, “Her campaign was so good, and she is so compelling, that Abrams would almost certainly be governor-elect right now — if the election had been fair. As the final votes are tallied, Kemp enjoys a razor-thin margin — but it is the product of misconduct so brazen and unethical that UN monitors would likely declare a stolen election if the contest were held in another country.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) ranted, “If Stacey Abrams (D) doesn’t win [the governor’s race] in Georgia, they stole it. It’s clear.” Brown added that Republicans “can’t win elections because there is way more of us than them. They can’t win elections fairly.”
Former DNC chairman and presidential candidate Howard Dean added, “This is a pattern in many places in Georgia. I am amazed that Kemp is so obvious about his efforts to steal the election. The failures of machines and personnel around the states are massive.”
Add in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: “In a democracy, no one—not even the President—can prevent the lawful counting of votes. We will not allow him or anyone else to steal this election.”