Former Clinton advisor Mark Penn warns Democrats are hitting “record lows” with Americans due to their behavior towards the Trump administration.
Former Clinton advisor and pollster Mark Penn warned on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday that Democrats’ ongoing resistance to President Donald Trump, including their refusal to stand and applaud at any point during the president’s address to Congress, is resulting in “record lows” in the polls.
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MARK PENN: They didn’t know how to applaud when you’re supposed to applaud. I’ve participated in many States of the Union and, you know, the Republicans kind of knew when to sit there and when to applaud, when something that was really unifying that they’re supposed to applaud, too. And look, what’s been happening is that the president’s ratings have been inching up in my polls. He had many popular policies in that speech, and Democratic ratings have really tanked. They’ve hit record lows and this kind of behavior, to me, really only underscores why those ratings are tanking. Because it’s amateurish. You know, it really turns the public off. I mean, the actual Democratic response itself, however, was not so bad; it was a pretty good response, but the performance in the hall when people were watching really turned viewers off.
Penn, chairman and CEO of Stagwell Inc., wrote this week in a Fox News op-ed that Trump is “gradually winning over the public, while the Democratic Party and the legacy of former President Joe Biden are in free fall.”
Trump addressed both chambers of Congress Tuesday evening in an expansive speech that lasted more than 90 minutes, as he took a victory lap for his accomplishments thus far and previewed his vision for the future.
The speech marked Trump’s first address before Congress since he reclaimed the Oval Office in January.
Multiple Democrats caused disruptions before and during President Trump’s speech despite calls from many in the party not to do so.
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Shortly into Trump’s speech, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who has already filed impeachment articles against the president over what he called “ethnic cleansing in Gaza,” stood up and began shouting at Trump and waving his cane at him. He was removed from the chamber by the sergeant at arms following an order from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
Republican lawmakers also called out their Democratic colleagues for not standing for the president’s guests, including DJ Daniel, a 13-year-old cancer survivor who was a guest at the speech.
“I was so disappointed that my Democratic colleagues couldn’t stand and show love for some of the Americans that were recognized tonight. That was really heartbreaking to me,” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital. “You have a little 13-year-old boy with brain cancer who worked diligently to overcome that. For him, when his dad lifted him up, for him to look out across that room and not to have everyone in there standing for him was heartbreaking.”
The Democrats’ official response was delivered by Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who rebuked Trump’s handling of the war in Ukraine and pursuit of a peace deal with Russia.
“We all want an end to the war in Ukraine, but Reagan understood that true strength required America to combine our military and economic might with moral clarity,” said Slotkin.
“As a Cold War kid, I’m thankful it was Reagan and not Trump in office in the 1980s. Trump would have lost us the Cold War.”
