Sarah Longwell:
Yes, well, look, those are all different issues.
But I think one of the things that you have to understand about a lot of these voters is that they can’t disentangle all of the crazy news stories, right? So they tend to just take it in general as an assessment of, does it feel like things are moving? Does it feel like things are happening?
And I do think, contrasted with a lot of frustrations I heard from voters just going back six months ago with Joe Biden was, hey, I don’t feel like I hear him. Don’t feel like I see him. And so the way that Donald Trump just kind of gets in people’s faces and hits people with tons of information, tons of action, they’re not necessarily there to adjudicate, is it a good action or a bad action? They just know stuff is happening.
And so they say, well, I’m seeing ICE trucks in my community. And I’m glad it means they’re doing something about immigration. And the January 6 pardons, that’s such an interesting one to me, because it’s people don’t like the January 6 pardons, but it’s not a deeply held conviction. They’re sort of like, well, I wish he hadn’t done it, but whatever. Like, it’s just one of those things that doesn’t sit with them as a really important issue.
And so I think that right now Donald Trump is benefiting with the people who kind of took a flier on him because they were frustrated with Joe Biden and the Democrats. And they’re — so far, they’re saying, OK, he gets a honeymoon period, I’m waiting to see what he does. And, so far, I like what I’m seeing because what I’m seeing is movement.
