WASHINGTON — Even after a primetime address from the White House and a visit to the southern border, Amercian voters continue to pin the blame of the government shutdown on President Donald Trump.
Twice as many voters sided with congressional Democrats in the current stalemate over border security that has led to a record-long government shutdown, according to a poll released Monday.
The Quinnipiac University survey was the third in two days where a majority of Americans both blamed the shutdown on Trump and opposed his signature call for spending taxpayer money on a southern border wall that he had promised Mexico would pay for.
The record-setting government shutdown just entered its fourth week. Here's who Americans blame.
More than half of registered voters, 56 percent, blamed Trump and congressional Republicans for the partial shutdown, while 36 percent said Democrats were responsible.
"'Mr. President, it's on you,' voters say about the government shutdown, blaming President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans more than Democrats," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll. "And while they believe there is both a humanitarian and a security crisis along the southern border, they absolutely don't think a wall will solve the problem."
Trump wasn't backing down. He rejected a suggestion from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a foe turned friend, to temporarily reopen the government while continuing to negotiate, and then declare an emergency and fund the wall that way if talks fall through.
"I did reject it," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Despite Trump's claims, U.S. voters backed the new House Democratic majority over Trump on every border security issue in the Quinnipiac poll after giving Democrats control of the House for the first time in eight years.
By better than 2 to 1, 63 percent to 30 percent, registered voters backed Democratic proposals to fund the rest of the government while they negotiate how much to spend on border security. By similar margins, they opposed shutting down the government to force Congress to vote for wall funding, 63 percent to 24 percent; and supported stronger border security measures that do not include a wall, 61 percent to 32 percent.
In other Quinnipiac poll results released Tuesday, a majority of American voters, 56 percent, said they disapproved of the way Trump was handing immigration, with 42 percent in favor.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said his chamber would vote this week on new measures to reopen the government. By contrast, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has rejected bills virtually identical to those that he and the GOP passed in December, only to find the Republicans who then controlled the House refusing to consider them.
The poll of 1,209 voters was conducted Jan. 9–13 and had a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points. Trump's speech was Jan. 8 and his trip to the southern border was Jan. 10.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
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