Most Republicans Say 176,000 Virus Deaths ‘Acceptable.’ RNC Chair Blames Poll
Deny the facts when the facts stand in your way seems to be the Trump administration’s motto. So, when the chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, was told that a large majority of her party’s supporters are pretty much OK with an American COVID-19 death toll that has now surpassed how many were killed in combat during World War I plus the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined, she rejected the poll’s findings, calling the question “unfair.”
But the question from the CBSNews/YouGov poll was straight forward and not unfair at all. The pollsters asked 2,226 registered voters if the number of US deaths from coronavirus is acceptable or not acceptable. And the difference between how Democrats answered the question compared to Republicans was stark.
A whopping 57 percent of Republicans said the number of coronavirus deaths is acceptable, while 67 percent of independents and 90 percent of Democrats said the number of deaths is “not acceptable.”
McDaniel seemed not to know her fellow Republicans well, telling CBS’s Face the Nation that coronavirus deaths do not run down party lines.
“Well, I think that is a really unfair poll and of course, there is nobody in this country, there is nobody starting with the president of the United States who wants to see people pass away from this global pandemic… This is not a Republican or Democrat issue,” the GOP chair said.
.@GOPChairwoman responds to @CBSNewsPoll showing 57% of Republicans say the number of those dead from #COVID19 is acceptable at 175,000:
"I think that is a really unfair poll..Republicans do not want to see people suffering from this pandemic." pic.twitter.com/E43B4p9rck
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 23, 2020
The poll also showed a drastic divide in the way Republicans see the current status of the pandemic in America compared to all other registered voters. A large majority of Republicans, 73 percent, said the way the US is dealing with the coronavirus is “going well,” while 62 percent of all voters said it is “going badly.”
McDaniel said, “Republicans do not want to see people suffering from this pandemic.” But with such an overwhelming majority of the party she chairs being fine with the status quo, can that actually be true?