I Voted for Trump and Will Do It Again Hes Making America Better

President Biden campaigns for California Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month. David McNew/Getty Images hide caption

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David McNew/Getty Images

President Biden campaigns for California Gov. Gavin Newsom before this month.

David McNew/Getty Images

Many moderate Republicans switched allegiances in last yr'due south election and backed Joe Biden because they could not abide four more than years of Donald Trump.

These voters, who swung from backing Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020, helped make the departure for Biden in places where the margins were close — frequently, the suburbs.

And then today, nigh eight months into Biden's presidency, how exercise these voters view him?

In a pair of virtual focus groups NPR observed final calendar week, featuring more than a dozen such voters from key states, a picture emerged of disappointment with Biden — but no regrets that they helped send Trump packing later on one term.

Handling of Afghanistan injure Biden's credibility

Let's beginning with the thwarting.

Polls evidence Biden'southward public approval ratings accept taken a hit in recent months. The voters in these focus groups reflected that slide.

They were worried about the spread of the delta variant and how COVID-19 continues to hurt the economy. They were wary of Democrats' big spending plans on infrastructure and other programs, alarmed by the troubles they run across along the Texas border, and were very disturbed by the cluttered U.S. withdrawal from Transitional islamic state of afghanistan.

"What happened in Afghanistan, to me, was the worst thing that's happened since Saigon." That reference to the 1975 U.Due south. withdrawal from Vietnam came from Paul, who lives in key Pennsylvania. (We agreed to identify focus group participants by first name only.)

He didn't purchase Biden's explanation that Trump set the exit in motion past committing to a withdrawal of troops in a deal with the Taliban last year.

"He didn't have to stick to the timeframe Trump gear up," Paul asserted, "merely he kept sticking to information technology and sticking to information technology, and a lot of people died and a lot of people were left behind. And so I think that was squarely on him."

Still, perhaps unlike the pandemic and the economy, Transitional islamic state of afghanistan may fade from the news over fourth dimension and, equally such, may not affect long-term impressions of Biden equally much.

And on the coronavirus, the focus group participants — all vaccinated — mostly gave Biden solid marks. It'southward clear he benefits from comparisons to his predecessor on that.

"He'due south definitely been better than Trump on handling COVID," said Xaveria from the Atlanta surface area. Only she also said the fact that the delta variant is creating such bug means yous still tin can't feel really cracking about how the current administration is doing regarding the pandemic.

So she added that at that place's merely an overall unease that'due south troubling. "Information technology's just kind of, like, not actually trusting what to expect," she said.

Every bit for Biden, she said, "I just put him at, similar, the boilerplate. He hasn't done anything groovy. And outside of Afghanistan, nada awful." But she was clearly hoping for improve.

Non thrilled with Biden, but absolutely not missing Trump

These 2 focus groups consisted of all Biden voters, simply overwhelmingly they still consider themselves Republicans. They oasis't withal left the party, even though they're disillusioned by Trump'south ongoing presence and the control he still holds.

In contrast to the majority of Republicans responding to polls, none of these voters falsely believes the 2020 election was stolen.

None said they regret their 2020 vote. And while they may be disappointed in Biden, they absolutely rule out voting for Trump if he runs for president again.

Former President Donald Trump waves to the crowd at the end of a rally on Saturday in Perry, Ga. Sean Rayford/Getty Images hide caption

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Former President Donald Trump waves to the crowd at the terminate of a rally on Sabbatum in Perry, Ga.

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Take Christine from the Philadelphia suburbs. Like others in her focus group, she said she commencement voted for Trump considering he was a businessman and not a politician.

Just she got far more than than she bargained for. She used blunt linguistic communication to depict the former president: "I felt like we had this monster in role that was bipolar, up and down, irrational, crazy thinking." She chosen Trump "childish," said that "crazy things came out of his mouth," and that he was "not skillful for the The states."

And after all of that, Christine confessed: "I didn't desire to vote for Biden. And I'm going to be honest with you, I would have voted for anybody merely Trump."

Others in the group blamed Trump for inciting racial tensions, citing how he described participants in a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va., as "very fine people."

As for Trump'southward oftentimes-stated claim that he would "bleed the swamp" in Washington, D.C., focus group member Mike, who lives in Georgia, had this retort: "I recollect he fabricated the swamp bigger."

"Information technology'south similar, where do we go?"

These swing voters readily say that their frustrations with both a Republican Party in Trump's grasp and with Biden leave them feeling a flake lost politically.

Georgia resident Xaveria asked a elementary question: "It'due south like, where practice we go?"

These voter discussions were role of a serial of focus groups that have been organized past longtime political strategist Sarah Longwell, the publisher of The Bulwark website who herself is a Republican who'southward worked to defeat Trump.

She hears voters like Xaveria and Christine and says they decline Trump and GOP candidates trying to be "Trumpy" themselves. She says such voters are open to voting for Democrats, but the party too needs to nominate more moderate candidates to make these voters feel welcome there.

These moderate-to-bourgeois voters "are very clear that they experience politically unmoored, politically homeless," Longwell said in an interview.

"I really view these voters equally upward for grabs in 2022 and 2024," she said. Just Longwell says it matters who the candidates are and how the parties see themselves.

And Longwell says it makes such voters worth watching. Information technology also makes them potentially pivotal. "Right now, people who are willing to change their vote from 1 political party to another really hold the keys to political ability," she said.

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/30/1041252418/they-voted-for-trump-and-then-for-biden-heres-what-these-swing-voters-think-now

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