— Joey Ingram (@Joeingram1) October 2, 2019. This hand alone speaks for itself. Mike Postle open-raises with 9h-5d and there is a 3-bet, a 4-bet and an All-In behind him. Mike not only calls the 4-bet and All-In out of position, but then insta-jams All-In on a Jh-9d-3h board stating: „I can’t lose“.
Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup.
This week, we have some of the first polls on how Americans feel about the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis, and the protests that have cropped up across the U.S. in response.
On the one hand, an overwhelming majority of Americans say Floyd’s death was wrong and the police officers involved should be held accountable. There is also some support for the frustration and anger that sparked the protests, and a majority of Americans now agree that there are vast racial inequities in policing. But public opinion on the protests themselves is more muddled and suggests that Americans have mixed views of the protesters and their right to demonstrate, much of which falls along familiar partisan lines.
First, the public pretty clearly thinks the police were in the wrong. A Yahoo News/YouGov survey, for instance, found that 84 percent of Americans strongly or somewhat approved of the firing of the officers involved in Floyd’s death, and 68 percent said they approved of charging former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes, with murder. Similarly, 65 percent of respondents in a Data for Progress poll said that Chauvin murdered Floyd; 25 percent of respondents said his death was partly a product of excessive force “but not murder,” and just 10 percent said it was a “tragic accident.”
Additionally, most Americans said that policing is biased against African Americans. In a new survey from Monmouth University, 57 percent said police were more likely to use excessive force in difficult situations if the suspect is black, while just 33 percent said police were equally likely to use excessive force against white people and black people. Similarly, 57 percent of respondents in a new CBS News/YouGov survey said police in most communities treat white people better than black people. Thirty-nine percent said police treat both races equally. On top of this, 61 percent of Americans said race was a “major factor” in Floyd’s death, according to the Yahoo News/YouGov survey. There was a big partisan gap in how respondents answered this question though: 87 percent of Democrats said race was a major factor compared with just 39 percent of Republicans.
More broadly, the public appears receptive to why people are protesting. Fifty-seven percent of respondents in the Monmouth poll felt that, regardless of their actions, protesters’ anger was “fully justified,” while 21 percent said it was “partially justified” and 18 percent said it was “not at all justified.” And 64 percent told Reuters/Ipsos that they were sympathetic to those participating in the protests, while a Morning Consult poll found that 54 percent of adults supported “the protest in general” while 22 percent opposed it.
However, Americans had mixed views on what has happened during the protests, and many have expressed disapproval of protests that have been violent or destructive. Forty-five percent of respondents told Morning Consult that, on the whole, most of the protesters are peaceful and desire meaningful social reform, while 42 percent said most protesters are trying to incite violence or destroy property. In Monmouth’s poll, only 17 percent felt the actions of the protesters were fully justified, 37 percent said they were partially justified and 38 percent said they weren’t justified at all. And the Reuters/Ipsos survey found that most Americans (72 percent) didn’t think violent protests were an appropriate response to Floyd’s killing, and that property damage caused by protesters undermined their goals (79 percent). Morning Consult’s survey also found that Americans were less supportive of the protests when they were specifically asked about black people protesting.
Americans across the political spectrum said they approved of some of the more forceful responses from local and state authorities. In Morning Consult’s poll, 70 percent said they supported curfews and 66 percent backed calling in the national guard to aid city police, with large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans approving these measures. Fifty-five percent of respondents even supported calling in the U.S. military, although there was a substantial partisan split on this question, with 74 percent of Republicans approving compared with 48 percent of Democrats.
As for President Trump’s handling of the protests, Americans largely gave him a thumbs down. The CBS News/YouGov poll found that 32 percent approved of Trump’s response while 49 percent disapproved, and Reuters/Ipsos found that 33 percent approved while 56 percent disapproved. Although Trump usually has overwhelming backing from Republicans on most job approval questions, there were some signs that at least a few GOP voters were breaking with him on this issue. The CBS News/YouGov survey found that 65 percent approved of how he’s handling the situation — far lower than the 84 percent who approve of how he’s handling the coronavirus pandemic, for example — while 14 percent disapproved. Similarly, in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, 20 percent disapproved while 67 percent approved.
There could be electoral repercussions to the protests and the president’s response to them. Monmouth’s survey found that 74 percent of Americans felt the country was on the wrong track, the largest share since Monmouth first asked the question nationally in 2013. And as a result of Floyd’s death and the protests, 45 percent of registered voters told Morning Consult they were more likely to now vote for former Vice President Joe Biden. However, another 31 percent said they’d be more likely to vote for Trump. And at this point, it’s hard to imagine that George Floyd’s death won’t be an important factor in the election.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s presidential approval tracker, 41.9 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 53.1 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of -11.2 points). At this time last week, 42.6 percent approved and 53.6 percent disapproved (a net approval rating of -11.0 points). One month ago, Trump had an approval rating of 43.3 percent and a disapproval rating of 51.1 percent, for a net approval rating of -7.8 points.
In our average of polls of the generic congressional ballot, Democrats currently lead by 7.8 percentage points (48.7 percent to 40.9 percent). A week ago, Democrats led Republicans by 7.7 points (48.2 percent to 40.5 percent). At this time last month, voters preferred Democrats by 7.7 points (48.0 percent to 40.3 percent).