HILL STAFF VIEWS: Most Congressional Aides Rated Trump’s SOTU as Good or Above Average
(QUICK READ) — Judging by the appearances during President Donald Trump’s recent State of the Union Speech, one might have expected a sharply critical response overall to his presentation. That was the case in some precincts but not in the minds of many congressional aides.
A non-partisan majority of 65 percent of those aides responding to a recent CNCT Capitol Pulse survey rated Trump’s speech either “Average” or “Better.” Among GOP Women, 79 percent rated of GOP women rated Trump’s oration as “Good.” The Good rating figure was selected by 70 percent of GOP Senate staffers, and 64 percent of the GOP respondents said the speech was GOOD.
Among the 19 percent of respondents who rated the speech as AVERAGE were 35 percent GOP Senior Policy aides and 31 percent of GOP Operations aides. Only six percent of the Democrats rated Trump’s speech as average.
The “BAD” rating was selected by 21 percent of all respondents, with 86 percent of those being Democratic Junior Policy aides, 78 percent among Democratic men and 59 percent overall being Democrats.
Perhaps most interestingly, among the 14 percent who said they did not watch the speech, 83 percent were Democrat Operations aides, 57 percent were Democratic Senate aides and only 8 percent were Republicans.