In both Michigan and Georgia, the share of voters who say they wouldn’t support either candidate is at least as large as the margin between Biden and Trump…reports Asian Lite News
Former US President Donald Trump is leading his successor Joe Biden in Michigan and Georgia with broad majorities in the two crucial battleground states holding negative views of the sitting President’s job performance, policy positions and sharpness, according to the latest polls.
The CNN polls released on Monday revealed that in Georgia, a state Biden carried by a very narrow margin in 2020, registered voters say they prefer Trump (49 per cent) over Biden (44 per cent) for the presidency in a two-way hypothetical matchup. In Michigan, which Biden won by a wider margin, Trump has 50 per cent support to Biden’s 40 per cent, with 10 per cent saying they wouldn’t support either candidate even after being asked which way they lean.
In both Michigan and Georgia, the share of voters who say they wouldn’t support either candidate is at least as large as the margin between Biden and Trump. Overall, just 35 per cent in Michigan and 39 per cent in Georgia approve of Biden’s job performance, the surveys find, and majorities in both states say his policies have worsened economic conditions in the country (54 per cent in Georgia, 56 per cent in Michigan). Most voters in both states say Biden, who’s 81, does not have the attributes they’re looking for in a president when it comes to his policy positions (57 per cent in Michigan, 56 per cent in Georgia), his ability to understand the problems of people like them (60 per cent in Michigan, 56 per cent in Georgia) or his sharpness and stamina (69 per cent in Michigan, 66 per cent in Georgia). Fewer in each state say that Trump, who’s 77, falls short of their expectations for a President on those same measures.
But Trump fares worse than Biden on temperament – 57 per cent in Michigan and 58 57 per cent in Georgia say the former President doesn’t have the temperament they’re looking for, compared with about half who say the same about Biden. Michigan will hold presidential primaries on February 27, 2024, while Georgia’s primaries are set for March 12. Meanwhile, in another development, Department of Justice (DOJ) Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked the US SC to settle Donald Trump’s claim of executive immunity so that the department can keep the former President’s criminal trial on track for March 04, 2024. Smith filed motions to SC and a federal appeals court in Washington to settle the question over presidential immunity.
“The United States recognises that this is an extraordinary request. This is an extraordinary case,” Smith said. He said that the court should grant certiorari and set a briefing schedule that would permit this case. “This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin,” he said. Some part of Smith’s 81-page motion to the SC details in great length the 1974 case, United States v. Nixon, in which the high court ruled unanimously against Nixon’s attempt to block evidence from being used in a trial by claiming executive authority. “It is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected,” Smith said. He said that respondent’s claims are profoundly mistaken, as the district court held. “But only this court can definitively resolve them,” he said.
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