Schumer Shutdown Backfires on Dems as Trump and GOP’s Approval Increases

President Donald Trump and Republicans may have gotten dinged in the polls at first amid the ongoing government shutdown as people naturally blamed the party in power, but as the Democrats voted against reopening the government 13 times, the public is correctly assigning the blame. 

CNN’s Harry Enten reviewed the polling proving just that; the Schumer shutdown has backfired on Democrats looking to win the narrative war. 

Enten: You might think, given that the Republicans are in charge of both the House and the Senate, that a government shutdown might actually hurt the Republican brand. But in fact, it hasn’t! If anything, it’s been helped a little bit! The shift in net popularity versus pre-shutdown. When we’re looking at the Republican Party overall, that brand, actually up two points….Look at the net approval ratings for Republicans in Congress. It’s actually up five points since pre-shutdown! So what we’re seeing here is the Republican brand in Congress has actually improved somewhat compared to where we were pre-shutdown, despite the fact that Republicans control.

That Republicans control the House and Senate is irrelevant of course, as Democrat votes are needed to breach the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate, and only three Democrats are willing to vote in favor of reopening. 

Enten: [Here’s] the Republican Congress’s net approval rating versus pre-shutdown. It’s rallying the base for sure. Look at this, the net approval rating up 12 points versus pre-shutdown. But it’s not just with the base, it’s also with the middle of the electorate. Look at this among independents, it’s up eight points as well! So we’ve got a situation here where Republicans with the shutdown are actually rallying their base, but it’s also something that’s not hurting them with the folks in the middle.

Watch his full report below: