RUSH: Okay, polling data. I mentioned there’s some fascinating polling data out there. I have it for you here in not any particular chronological order. The first story is from Breitbart, but it’s a Quinnipiac poll, and the upshot of this poll: only 23% of the American people believe Stormy Daniels is an important issue.
Despite weeks and weeks of media hype about Stormy Daniels and the Make America Horny Again Tour, not only has President Trump’s job approval rating jumped in the latest Quinnipiac poll, but only 23% of Americans believe the alleged affair between Trump and Stormy Daniels is an important issue.
A massive majority of 73% say it’s not important. Even 51% of Democrats agree that it’s not an important issue, along with 79% of independents. And there’s no notable gender gap on the question. So it’s not that a lot of women think it is important but more men think it isn’t. It’s across the board a vast majority of people do not think it’s any big deal.
Quinnipiac sums up their Stormy findings this way. Yes, he did it. No, we don’t care. A big yawn from voters on Stormy Daniels, President Trump and the payoff. This includes people being asked to comment, weigh in on the payoff. Now, I hate to tell you this, but none of this is gonna matter to the Southern District of New York. And none of this is going to matter to the FBI.
They’re not gonna care that Quinnipiac did a poll and found that only 23% believe Stormy Daniels and the payoff is a big deal. All they’re gonna see here is that there may have been a serious violation of federal campaign finance law, and they’re gonna run it down and they’re gonna pursue it to whatever extent they can, and public opinion isn’t going to matter.
So where will public opinion impact this if at all? ‘Cause investigators are not gonna look at this, “Oh, my God. We got drop this. Look at this. The American people don’t even care.” Since when does the deep state care about the American people? But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any impact at all.
If 73% of the American people don’t think this is a big deal, including the $130,000 payoff from Cohen to Stormy Daniels, and yet the media will not let go of it — and, believe me, the Stormy Daniels story is now rivaling the missing Malaysian airliner in terms of minutes and hours and days of coverage on CNN.
If 73% of the American people don’t think it’s any big deal and the Drive-Bys won’t let go of it, the Drive-Bys are gonna drive people away, the Drive-Bys are gonna tick people off, and it’s gonna end up having about as much impact on Trump as the Access Hollywood video did. But it’s not gonna stop the investigators, that we know of.
I feel very confident in suggesting that law enforcement — I’ve only known — (laughing) — I’ve only known one law enforcement person who reacted to public pressure on a legal matter. It just doesn’t happen. And I don’t think it’s gonna matter here. But it still is an interesting data point, don’t you think, because with all the media coverage, doesn’t this kind of make the point, you watch the media on this, and do they not give the impression that all of America is outraged by this?
Do they not report this as though everybody has had it, that Trump is nothing but a scum bucket and this is the latest evidence? And everybody’s appalled and everybody wants Trump gone? Don’t they report it that way like they do everything they believe in? And yet the truth is 73% of the people watching ’em don’t think that. So the media further alienates themselves from people in their audience.
Now, this next poll is a crazy one. This is reported at CNN. Here’s the headline: “Polls Show the GOP is Now President Trump’s Party — President Donald Trump has become more popular since the election,” says the analyst here at CNN. “His net favorability rating has climbed by more than 8 percentage points since he before the 2016 election. A closer examination of his polling reveals why he’s become more popular: It’s almost all about the demise of the anti-Trump Republican.”
In other words, the Never Trumpers are fading away to the point of practical irrelevance. See, the Never Trumpers never were the Republican — if you ask me, the Never Trumpers never really have been. This story assumes that they have been. And the polling data shows that the GOP is now Trump’s party, meaning Trump has taken over the party, and the Republican Party identity is the Trump agenda.
“A large reason why Republicans have been unwilling to speak out like they did before the election is that far more members of the Republican electorate now like Trump. That is, it’s electorally dangerous to go against him.” CNN shocked by this, bewildered by this, doesn’t make any sense to them because CNN has been reporting on Trump’s popularity as though everybody hates Trump like they do.