'Extraordinary': CNN's Jim Acosta Triggered by Poll Showing Most Consider Trump's Presidency a Success

By Ben Kew | 5:00 PM on April 29, 2024

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CNN's Jim Acosta was clearly triggered by polling carried out by his own network indicating that Americans have a more positive view of Donald Trump's presidency than he would like to believe.

Over the weekend, CNN published the results of its latest presidential tracking poll, which found that not only did Trump hold a commanding lead in the race for the White House, but also that a majority of Americans considered his presidency to be a success.

CNN reported:

Trump’s support in the poll among registered voters holds steady at 49% in a head-to-head matchup against Biden, the same as in CNN’s last national poll on the race in January, while Biden’s stands at 43%, not significantly different from January’s 45%.
Looking back, 55% of all Americans now say they see Trump’s presidency as a success, while 44% see it as a failure. In a January 2021 poll taken just before Trump left office and days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, 55% considered his time as president a failure.

...

Among all voters, when independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are included in the matchup, Trump holds 42% to Biden’s 33%, with Kennedy at 16%, West at 4% and Stein at 3%. Kennedy draws 13% each from supporters of Biden and Trump in the initial two-way matchup.
Assessing Biden’s time in office so far, 61% say his presidency thus far has been a failure, while 39% say it’s been a success. That’s narrowly worse than the 57% who called the first year of his administration a failure in January 2022, with 41% calling it a success.

These findings did not go down well with Acosta, who said he found it was “extraordinary” that some voters look back fondly at Trump’s presidency given the number of people who died during the COVID-19 pandemic and the January 6th Capitol incursion.

“The other thing that’s in that poll is it shows that a lot of Americans view Donald Trump’s presidency as a success, which is extraordinary given the fact that a million people died from COVID,” Acosta said.

“Based on this poll, if the election were held today, Donald Trump would go from the courthouse to the White House,” CNN political commentator Alice Stewart weighed in. “No questions asked.”

“[Trump’s] presidency ended with an insurrection at the Capitol,” Acosta responded. “Maria, how is it that the Democrats have not been able to get that message across to voters and that they can’t break through this short-term memory?”

Acosta, who likes to present himself as a neutral journalist despite regularly shilling for the Biden administration, has a long and chequered history with Trump dating back to his time in office.

Last December, Acosta similarly expressed his bafflement at Americans' failure to celebrate the supposed fruits of Joe Biden's economic agenda.

"The question I have though is inflation is cooling. I mean, if you look at gas prices, they’re going down," he said at the time. "They’re around three bucks a gallon in the Washington, D.C. area, Maryland or Virginia. I suspect it fluctuates depending on where you are around the country, but generally coming down. People aren’t feeling that enough just yet."