CBS News Poll: 82 Percent Of Viewers Felt Trump Was 'Presidential' During Speech To Congress
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) – President Donald Trump delivered his first speech in front of Congress Tuesday night and many viewers approved of it.
According to a CBS News poll, 82 percent of people who watched the speech felt it was presidential. While 97 percent of Republicans felt it was presidential in nature, a majority of Democrats (54 percent) agreed.
As for the overall tone of the speech, 61 percent felt it was very positive. Only 19 percent of Democrats felt the speech was very positive, but 87 percent of Republicans fell into that category.
Trump's address came at a pivotal moment for a new president elected on pledges to swiftly shake up Washington and follow through on the failed promises of career politicians. His opening weeks in office have been consumed by distractions and self-inflicted wounds, including the bungled rollout of a sweeping immigration and refugee executive order that was blocked by the courts.
Ahead of the signing of a revamped order, Trump said, "It is not compassionate but reckless, to allow uncontrolled entry from places where proper vetting cannot occur."
According to the CBS News poll, 64 percent of viewers favored President Trump's illegal immigration plan prior to the speech. The number jumped to 70 percent after the speech.
Another issue Trump tackled was undoing Obama's signature health care law and replacing the sweeping measure. Trump offered a basic blueprint of his priorities, including ensuring that those with pre-existing conditions have access to coverage, allowing people to buy insurance across state lines and offering tax credits and expanded health savings accounts to help Americans purchase coverage.
On that issue, 55 percent of viewers were in favor of Trump's plan. Following the speech, 65 percent of viewers were in favor of his plan to deal with Obamacare.
The poll was conducted immediately after the conclusion of the President's Address to Congress by re-contacting a scientifically sampled panel of Americans who had first been interviewed in the days leading up to the speech, and had stated that they planned to watch. A total of 857 speech watchers were interviewed. The margin of error for the total sample is 4.2 points.
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(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
