Subject: FW: New National Poll: 'Americans Don’t Trust Trump on Supreme Court Vacancy; 65% Want Hearings'
From: "Walker, Eric" <[email-masked]>
To: Comm_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 May 2016 06:57:55 -0700

From: National Press List [mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Jeremy Funk
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2016 10:00 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: New National Poll: 'Americans Don’t Trust Trump on Supreme Court Vacancy; 65% Want Hearings'

Link: http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/page/-/NationalSupremeCourtMemo.pdf
 From: Tom Jensen, Director of Public Policy Polling

To: Interested Parties

Subject: Americans Don’t Trust Trump on Supreme Court Vacancy; 65% Want Hearings

Date: 5-9-16<x-apple-data-detectors://3>

A new national Public Policy Polling survey finds Americans don’t trust Donald Trump to nominate a new Supreme Court justice, and would much rather have that decision in the hands of either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Beyond that, there is growing support for filling the seat this year and failure to do so could result in strong backlash for Senate Republicans this fall.

Key findings from the survey include:

-Only 38% of voters nationally trust Donald Trump to nominate a Supreme Court justice, compared to 53% who don’t trust him to do that. Only 57% of voters even within his own party trust Trump to make a selection, and more than 80% of Democrats as well as a majority of independents don’t trust him with that responsibility.

-Americans, by double digit margins, trust both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton more with the duty of picking a Supreme Court justice than Trump. Obama beats Trump 53/37 on that question, and Clinton does by a similar 52/37 spread as well. What’s particularly noteworthy is that in addition to more than 80% of Democrats, 29% of Republicans would prefer either Obama or Clinton making that decision to their own party’s presumptive nominee for President.

-By a 58/37 spread, Americans want the Supreme Court seat to be filled this year. That’s actually up from 56/40 support for filling it this year on a national PPP poll in early March. The reason for the shift is that 39% of Republicans now think the seat should be filled immediately, up from just 26% two months ago. That seems to suggest the ascendance of Trump has changed the minds of many GOP voters across the country about continuing to obstruct the nomination of Merrick Garland.

-There’s strong bipartisan consensus nationally that Garland at least deserves a fair shot at being confirmed. 65% of voters think the Senate should have hearings on his nomination, to only 17% opposed to doing that. There’s 81/6 support among Democrats, 56/22 among independents, and 55/26 support even among Republicans for holding hearings.

-There could be a big price to pay politically for Senate Republicans if they continue to obstruct the Garland nomination. 50% of voters say they’d be less likely to vote for a Senator who opposed having confirmation hearings, compared to only 18% who say that stance would make them more likely to vote for their Senator. Among pivotal independents, voters are 23 points less likely to vote for a Senator opposed to at least having hearings on Garland’s nomination.

-Mitch McConnell’s unpopularity continues to be a huge drag on the brand of Senate Republicans. Only 11% of voters nationally approve of the job he’s doing as Senate Majority Leader, to 61% who disapprove. Incumbents running for reelection across the country this year will be hurt by their association with him.

The bottom line is pretty clear- Americans want the Supreme Court seat filled this year. And support for doing that has gotten even greater over the last few months due to the substantial number of Republicans who don’t trust Donald Trump making that decision for the country. Voters see the refusal of Senate Republicans to even hold hearings on Merrick Garland’s nomination as unreasonable, and this issue could hurt them in the polls in November. It’s been 3 months now, and there’s no indication this political problem for them is going away.

Public Policy Polling interviewed 884 registered voters nationally on May 4th and 5th. The survey’s margin of error is +/-3.3%. This research was conducted on behalf of Americans United for Change.

*FULL RESULTS<http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/page/-/NationalPollResults.pdf>

______________________________________________________
Jeremy J. Funk
Communications Director, Americans United for Change
Office: 202.470.5878<tel:202.470.5878>
Cell: 605.366.3654<tel:605.366.3654>
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
www.AmericansUnitedforChange.org<http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/>
Twitter: @jeremyjfunk<https://twitter.com/JeremyJFunk>

From: Kentucky [mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Jeremy Funk
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 4:20 PM
To: [email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
Subject: It's Official: Senator McConnell Wants to Hand Supreme Court Appointment to...Donald Trump

www.americansunitedforchange.org<http://www.americansunitedforchange.org>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                            Contact:       Jeremy Funk, 202-470-5878<tel:202-470-5878>
May 4, 2016                                                                          Blake Williams, 202-470-5870<tel:202-470-5870>

It’s Official: Senator McConnell Wants to Hand Supreme Court Appointment to...Donald Trump
Talking Points Memo, May 4<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mcconnell-won-t-back-down-on-supreme-court-nominee>: ‘McConnell Will Keep Blocking Garland Even If Trump Gets To Pick SCOTUS Nom’

Washington DC -- With Donald Trump becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee<http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/05/reince-priebus-donald-trump-is-nominee-222767> Tuesday night after Senator Ted Cruz suspended his campaign, Americans United for Change President Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement on the implications for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s blockade of the President’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland, who brings to the table more federal judicial experience than any other nominee in history:
"It's official. Senator McConnell is refusing to do his job because he wants Donald Trump -- a racist, sexist, misogynistic, nativist, isolationist, pathological liar who said he would date his daughter if they weren't related and won't rule out using nuclear weapons in the Middle East -- to make the next appointment to the Supreme Court. Less than two hours after Justice Scalia’s death hit the newswires in February, Senator McConnell was giving marching orders to hold the seat as a political hostage. McConnell’s knee-jerk, unconstitutional reaction quickly became a united Republican front and their latest show of utter disrespect for the office of the Presidency.  Most Republican Senators snapped at attention and toed the line that the previous presidential election did not matter and that the President’s term was effectively over the day Scalia died. The same Republicans who so often wave a pocket Constitution as a prop to criticize the President were suddenly arguing that their fundamental responsibilities outlined within are more of a suggestion than a job requirement.”
“All recent polling shows overwhelming public consensus from Independent voters in particular that Judge Garland deserves a hearing and up-or-down vote this year. But McConnell’s Senate majority was hanging by a thread before the vacancy even became an issue. Add Trump to the equation and voters now wondering whether the Supreme Court seat will ultimately be filled by someone who thinks women should be jailed for seeking an abortion, and McConnell may as well hand over his gavel and change his letterhead to Senate Minority Leader now. Swing-state Republican Senators who signed McConnell’s political suicide pact should start checking the K Street want ads, as well.”
BACKGROUND:

•  McConnell, May 2<http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/mitch-mcconnell-newsmax-donald-trump-hillary/2016/05/02/id/726836/>: “ I'm going to … support the nominee of our party, whomever that may be."

•  Talking Points Memo, May 4<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mcconnell-won-t-back-down-on-supreme-court-nominee>: ‘McConnell Will Keep Blocking Garland Even If Trump Gets To Pick SCOTUS Nom’

•  The longer Senator McConnell puts politics before the Constitution and keeps the Supreme Court a Justice short, the more dysfunction and uncertainty it invites for businesses and citizens across the country: Over 350 law professors<http://www.afj.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Law-professor-SCOTUS-vacancy-letter.pdf> warned in a letter to Congressional leaders: ‘A long-term vacancy jeopardizes the Supreme Court’s ability to resolve disputed questions of federal law, causing uncertainty and hampering the administration of justice across the country.’  Put another way<https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/civil-liberties/report/2016/03/14/133139/justice-waits-for-a-nine-member-supreme-court/>: “Any 4-4 tied votes from the Court would result in a default upholding of decisions by regional circuit courts or state supreme courts. Some circuit courts could make federal law for the entire nation. In other areas of the law, Americans could have different constitutional rights in different parts of the country. The U.S. Supreme Court could hold some of these cases over until its next term—which starts in October—leaving millions of Americans waiting for justice.”  USA Today reported<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/31/supreme-court-scalia-eight-justices-tie-votes/82435866/> signs of dysfunction are already apparent: “Cases large and small are ending in tie votes. The pace of decisions has slowed slightly, and fewer new cases are being granted.”

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