During her 12:00 p.m. ET hour show on Wednesday, MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell revealed her greatest fear amid the coronavirus pandemic – Donald Trump’s approval ratings going up. She fretted over likely Democratic nominee Joe Biden “having difficulty” getting his message out during the crisis and support for the President “skyrocketing.”
Turning to former Obama administration official Jim Messina, Mitchell anxiously noted: “There is politics involved. We’ve heard very little from, for instance, the more likely, most likely nominee of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden. He’s having difficulty getting – projecting through this crisis as the campaign goes totally on hold.”
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the MSNBC host referenced positive poll numbers for Trump:
We’re also seeing some polls indicating the President’s approval ratings among Democrats and independents skyrocketing to their highest levels yet. Some 60% approval ratings for the way he’s handling this crisis as he continues to hold these briefings. The briefings are working for the President.
In frustration, she added: “No matter what he says, people seem to be seeing him as a leader, at least more people do.”
Messina desperately tried to reassure his fellow Democrat:
Yeah, as you know, Andrea, you and I share a healthy skepticism on public polling. And I think, you know, what polling shows right now is not going to be what happens, right? The problem President Trump has is he’s made a bunch of promises that have turned out to be wrong on this virus. And going forward, once we get really deep into this in the next couple of weeks, the American public’s gonna look back and say, “What did you say was happen and what actually happened?”
The Obama hack concluded: “I would reject all of the polls that you see back and forth....President Trump’s comments are someday going to be on a television ad and it’s going to be really difficult for him rebut in the fall of this year.”
Here is a transcript of the March 25 exchange:
12:27 PM ET
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ANDREA MITCHELL: I wanted to bring in Jim Messina. There is politics involved. We’ve heard very little from, for instance, the more likely, most likely nominee of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden. He’s having difficulty getting – projecting through this crisis as the campaign goes totally on hold. We’re also seeing some polls indicating the President’s approval ratings among Democrats and independents skyrocketing to their highest levels yet. Some 60% approval ratings for the way he’s handling this crisis as he continues to hold these briefings. The briefings are working for the President. No matter what he says, people seem to be seeing him as a leader, at least more people do.
JIM MESSINA: Yeah, as you know, Andrea, you and I share a healthy skepticism on public polling. And I think, you know, what polling shows right now is not going to be what happens, right? The problem President Trump has is he’s made a bunch of promises that have turned out to be wrong on this virus. And going forward, once we get really deep into this in the next couple of weeks, the American public’s gonna look back and say, “What did you say was happen and what actually happened?”
The second political challenge he has is the economy, right? These numbers right in the middle of his re-election campaign, the unemployment numbers skyrocketing in the states. And this is gonna present a real problem for him.
For Vice President Biden has the opposite problem, which is he now has to kind of sit there and watch all of this. He can’t go out and raise money, he can’t kind of consolidate his lead. We had to move some of the primaries back. So it’s a challenge for him too.
But you know, right now President Trump, I would reject all of the polls that you see back and forth and just know that in a month from now, people are going to kind of look back and say what happened and who is responsible? And President Trump’s comments are someday going to be on a television ad and it’s going to be really difficult for him rebut in the fall of this year.
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