According to CNN’s senior data reporter Harry Enten, American’s have not changed their minds on former President Donald Trump despite the criminal trial in New York City.
The closing arguments in the trial against the former president took place yesterday and now the jury will decide the fate of Trump as he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Presiding Judge Juan Merchan gave jury instructions this morning and CNN reported that poll numbers for Trump actually increased in his favor.
“Let’s take a look here: ‘Think Trump did something illegal in the New York hush money case,’ I’ve been interested in whether or not these numbers would change at all during the course of this trial,” Enten described to host John Berman. “Simply put, John, they have not. Pre-opening statements think Trump did something illegal, 46%, after the direct examination of Michael Cohen by the prosecution, look at where we are now, 46%. The percentage of Americans who think that the charges are very serious in fact, dropped from 40% to a little bit more than 35% during the course of this trial. So, yes, perhaps things might have changed with those 12 jurors, but what comes to the larger American public, there has been no change, at least so far, John.”
The prosecution hinged their case on disgraced former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels.
“I think the question is, what’s exactly cooking here?” Enten said. “Why hasn’t there been much of a change? While folks like you and me, real news junkies, might be paying really close attention to what’s going on, the fact is that most Americans don’t really care that much.”
“So closely following news about economy/inflation, that’s number one. It’s 65%,” Enten said describing the data. “Look at immigration, 52%, election legitimacy, 49%, abortion, 47%, all the way down on this list of issues tested by the Ipsos Knowledge panel is Trump’s court cases at 42%, significantly less than economy and inflation. The fact is John, when we’re looking at these numbers, what we see is Americans minds aren’t changing, and a big reason why Americans’ minds aren’t changing is at this particular point, John, they are tuned out of the conversation.”
According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls between Trump and Biden, Trump leads by 1.1% and his lead increases to 1.8% when the polls take into account third party candidates like Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independents such as Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“I’ll just point out the Biden versus Trump margin, perhaps not a big surprise,” Enten noted. “Donald Trump had a slight lead before the trial began, now he continues to have a slight lead.”
“Look, it’s still very much a winnable race for Joe Biden,” Enten said. “But at this particular point, that Trump train that’s been moving faster than it’s ever moved before in a general election doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, despite the criminal indictments against him, despite the fact that this case in New York is now going to the jury.”