Political management professor Lara Brown told Hill.TV’s “Rising” on Wednesday that Republican voters largely tuned into President Trump’s State of the Union address in an effort to find a sense of reassurance in the president.
“The majority of the people who tuned in to watch it are Republicans,” Brown, the director of George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton.
“I think they were looking for some sense of reassurance from the president after the shutdown debacle, and after this loss of approval, and a sense that he was out of his league from a negotiating standpoint,” she continued.
“I think his base largely got this,” she said. “They had a sense that this president was doing a great job, and that he was really leading on the issues that he cared about. So whether that translates to any other conversation across the aisle is really the problem for this president.”
A CNN poll released on Wednesday found that 87 percent of Republicans polled said they had a “very positive” reaction to the address.
The survey also found that 62 percent of GOP viewers said they thought Trump could reach bipartisan harmony.
Trump’s second State of the Union address came on the heels of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history over disagreements on border security funding.
The president advocated for his proposed border wall and touted the state of the economy, and lashed out at investigations into his administration and 2016 presidential campaign.
— Julia Manchester
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