A panel of U.S. voters from all parties gave their live reactions to President Donald Trump‘s comments on the ongoing partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security at his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
The panel, assembled by polling group Maslansky & Partners, was composed of 29 Democrats, 30 independents and 40 Republicans. Their live reactions to Trump’s comments were displayed as lines on a graph, with high values representing positive reactions and low values indicating negative reactions.
Democrats’ reactions were represented in blue, Republicans in red and independents in yellow.
Republicans and Democrats immediately assumed their partisan roles as Trump accused Democratic lawmakers of cutting off funding to DHS, with GOP support soaring and Democrats dipping well below the 50% mark. Independents hovered in the neutral zone, however.
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“As we speak, Democrats in this chamber have cut off all funding for the Department of Homeland Security. It’s all cut off. It’s all cut off,” Trump said during this segment. “They have instituted another Democrat shutdown. The first one costed us two points on GPD.”
Independent support sprang up over 50% when Trump announced he was demanding “the full and immediate restoration of all funding for the border security, homeland security of the United States.”
The segment finished with Trump calling on lawmakers to reaffirm that their first duty is “to protect American citizens and not illegal aliens.”
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Both GOP and independent support rose to its highest point during that final remark, while Democrats were at nearly their lowest mark.
The general finding from the Maslansky poll found the speech largely reinforced existing beliefs for all voters, rather than persuading.
“There was almost no evidence of movement. Instead, voters expressed strong affirmation or strong rejection,” the group said in a statement.
“It did not soften opposition. It did not significantly broaden appeal. But in a turnout-driven environment, reinforcement may be the point,” the statement continued.