Democrats frustrated with poll showing voters see Trump as more moderate
(They are surprised that people know who she is, a radical and awful Marxist…KEK And all their lies are not working, I wonder why?)
Amie Parnes
Tue, September 10, 2024 at 5:18 PM EDT·6 min read
Democrats are voicing frustrations at polling that shows more voters see former President Trump as the moderate candidate in the presidential race against Vice President Harris. Democrats for years have cast Trump as an extremist who is a threat to democracy. But a poll released by The New York Times and Siena College found more voters see Harris as too liberal than see Trump as too conservative.
Democrats in Congress were stunned by the notion that Trump could be viewed as the more moderate figure.“This may be the first question posed to me during my six years for which I don’t have an immediate response, because it seems so incongruent with what I think to be reality,” said Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.).
“It’s a mind-blowing contention that he’s the more moderate candidate. I’m literally speechless, other than recognizing that the perception must be — especially amongst right-wing media — that she’s just an uber-leftist,” he said. “And I don’t think that’s who she is.”
Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip, delivered a similar message of disbelief. “The poll that matters is on Election Day, and I don’t think that Donald Trump is getting elected for his moderate views,” she said. “And if we’re now calling a national abortion ban, taking away veterans’ benefits, closing our public schools, moderate — god help us all.”
The survey suggests GOP attacks on Harris have been effective in painting her as farther to the left and that Democratic attacks on Trump as an extremist have not landed as solidly.
And it left some Democrats complaining about the voters polled by the surveys. “Donald Trump has no core values, so therefore he has been on either side of so many issues throughout his political career,” said Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau. “He’ll go to one crowd and say he’s going to do this and go to another crowd and say he’s going to do that. So it should not be surprising that there are some voters who see him in that light.”
Mollineau argued that Trump has aligned himself with “the most conservative members of the Republican Party” and that Democrats need to do a better job of messaging to win over voters who see Trump as the more moderate candidate.
The New York Times/Siena poll out earlier this week revealed that only 32 percent of likely voters say Trump is “too conservative.” When asked if Trump was too conservative, not conservative enough, or not too far either way, 49 percent say he is “not too far either way”
Asked about Harris, 47 percent of likely voters said they viewed her as “too liberal or progressive,” 9 percent said “not liberal or progressive enough” and 41 percent said “not too far either way.”
The poll unnerved Democrats who have lauded the Harris campaign’s efforts in taking a more centrist tack since becoming the nominee. Harris has moved toward the center on taxes from President Biden, for example, and she has dropped her call for a ban on fracking, a critical issue in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
Phillips acknowledged that Harris is vulnerable to attacks from the right after shifting to the left during the Democrats’ 2020 presidential primary.Harris ran for president in the 2020 cycle and adopted a number of liberal positions as she battled candidates such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic primary.
“Vice President Harris, because of her pivot to the left during the 2020 election, clearly has baggage — at least amongst Independents and moderate Republicans — that she’s going to have to address,” he said. But he also argued that Harris is the much more moderate figure — and was incredulous that the contest would be framed otherwise.
Democratic strategist Nayyera Haq said voters have forgotten what Trump was like in office. “This is the challenge of Trump having been around for so long, some people are forgetting how dangerous and erratic he was in the White House,” she said….
https://news.yahoo.com/news/democrats-republicans-respond-presidential-debate-052721726.html?