Geoff Bennett:
As President Trump prepares to deliver the first State of the Union address of his second term, six in 10 Americans say the country is in a worse place than a year ago. That’s according to a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll.
Amna Nawaz:
The president will have a chance to try to turn the page tomorrow night, laying out his list of priorities for the year to come.
Ahead of that speech, White House correspondent Liz Landers checks in with voters about how they see the direction of the country.
Donald Trump:
The state of our union is stronger than ever before.
(Cheering)
Liz Landers:
For decades, it’s become routine.
Joe Biden:
The state of our union is strong and getting stronger.
Barack Obama:
The state of our union is strong.
George W. Bush:
The state of our union will remain strong.
Liz Landers:
Presidents walk into the House chamber to project optimism and strength to the American people.
Heading into this speech tomorrow night, just 43 percent of Americans say the current state of the union is strong in this latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll. That’s a four-point drop from last year. Of course, how you define strength is in the eye of the beholder, so we talked to some of the participants in this poll.
Mark Meulebroeck, Oregon Independent Voter:
Strong compared to other countries, very much so. Strong compared to what we are or could be, certainly not nearly as strong as we could be.
Liz Landers:
Others would choose another word entirely.
Dylan Kelly, Minnesota Democratic Voter:
If I used one word to describe it, I’d probably say terrible. I’m concerned about our democracy. It feels like we are teetering on the edge of losing it all, and that’s a pretty scary place to be.
Christopher Gunkel, Virginia Republican Voter:
I’m divided because I think the issues are very divisive. Trump is extremely polarizing, in some aspects for good, because what you see is what you get.
Donald Trump, President of the United States: I, Donald John Trump…
Liz Landers:
Since Mr. Trump reentered the Oval Office last January, he’s pushed policies at a frenetic pace, sending immigration agents and the National Guard to American cities, launching bombs in Iran and missiles on boats in the Caribbean, threatening to take over Greenland slashing the federal work force, calling for investigations into his perceived political enemies, all of it testing the limits of presidential power.
A majority of Americans in this latest poll say President Trump’s actions so far are changing the country for the worse, and it’s affecting them personally. A majority say the policies of his second term are having a negative impact on their lives. Less than a third say it’s made life better for them.
Lee Miringoff, Director, Marist Institute for Public Opinion: We’re here, and, if anything, people’s perceptions of what’s been going on have deteriorated.
Liz Landers:
Lee Miringoff is the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. He says views of President Trump’s policies are directly tied to people’s perceptions of him.
Lee Miringoff:
Donald Trump is defining the landscape. You’re for him or against him. He’s the incumbent and he’s bigger than life in terms of the figure he projects to the American people. So, Republicans and Democrats alike divide up along what view people have of him along partisan lines.
Liz Landers:
Two-thirds of Republicans feel good, with some pointing to the economy.
Christopher Gunkel:
I feel like he knows what he’s doing because he’s a businessman. I feel more comfortable with him at the helm and with our economy personally.
Liz Landers:
More than half of independents disagree.
Mark Meulebroeck:
Nothing’s going down in Christ. Everything’s still going up in costs. Most people are struggling these days.
Liz Landers:
And the overwhelming majority of Democrats say they have personally seen negative effects from the president’s actions.
Man:
I have done nothing wrong!
Liz Landers:
Like the immigration crackdown across the country.
Dylan Kelly:
ICE agents coming into Minnesota communities and terrorizing people here. I have people I know who have been afraid to leave their houses. I have had family members detained, family members tear-gassed.
Liz Landers:
So, tomorrow night, Mr. Trump will likely try for a reset, pushing his policy prescriptions for the weeks and months ahead, like lowering electricity costs and requiring I.D. to vote in elections, while still continuing his aggressive anti-immigration agenda.
The speech is a high stakes moment for the president.
Lee Miringoff:
Donald Trump needs to, in a sense, redefine what his second term is about. He started off with numbers that were much better than they are right now. So the past year, in consulting terms, he’s gotten off-message.
Liz Landers:
It’s also likely to be his biggest audience of the year, with millions of Americans watching from home, and inside the House chamber, his Cabinet tasked with carrying out his agenda, his Republican allies in Congress, Democrats trying to block him, and representatives from the nation’s highest court, where many of his executive orders have already been tested and in many cases upheld.
But just last week, and one of the most significant blows to his economic agenda so far, the justices struck down tariffs the president had unilaterally imposed on foreign countries.
Donald Trump:
I’m ashamed of certain members of the court.
Liz Landers:
After the decision, Trump lashed out, suggesting he doesn’t care if they show up tomorrow night.
Donald Trump:
They’re barely invited.
Liz Landers:
When every co-equal branch of government will be in the same room, at a time when Americans’ faith in the delicate system of checks and balances is at an all-time low.
In the new poll conducted before the latest Supreme Court decision, two-thirds of respondents say the system is not working well. That lack of trust in a core tenant of American democracy has jumped 12 points since Trump’s speech to Congress last March, and it has doubled since the month before his inauguration.
Kimberly Wehle:
I think it’s hard to over exaggerate, frankly, or exaggerate the extent to which the last year has degraded, if not demolished the basic pillars of constitutional democracy.
Liz Landers:
Kimberly Wehle is a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and author of several books, including “How to Read the Constitution and Why.”
She sees how the branches of government are working together as a deeply troubling moment.
Kimberly Wehle:
It’s not the actual speed limit that slows people down. It’s the threat of enforcement or consequence for speeding. It’s that ticket that motivates compliance with the speed limit. If the speed limit is the Constitution, where do the tickets come from? Either Congress or the courts. Donald Trump understands there’s no enforcement.
John Yoo, Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General:
I wouldn’t mess with that. mistake what Congress is doing now for some kind of constitutional breakdown.
Liz Landers:
John Yoo sees it differently. He’s a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a former Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration. He says it’s no surprise that Republican Congress is going along with the policies of a Republican president.
John Yoo:
What he’s trying to achieve in terms of reform of the relations of the executive branch with the other branches and presidential power generally is to restore the presidency to the way it was originally understood by the founders.
Liz Landers:
But Yoo says that voters will hold the ultimate power during November’s midterm elections.
John Yoo:
Those critics should go and win the elections at the midterms and then place political pressure using Congress’s constitutional powers to try to restrain him.
Liz Landers:
A potential shift that wouldn’t be on full display until next year’s State of the Union address.
For the PBS “News Hour,” I’m Liz Landers.
#Americans #country #worse #year #poll #shows
