A new Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll offers some predictable insight, based on how things have been going for the Brandon Administration of late. On the 2024 horse-race front: Trump’s up 47-40 over Biden in a head-to-head matchup.
The other major GOP contender, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is locked in a virtual tie with Biden, undercutting the popular conception that Trump is particularly vulnerable to a defeat by the incumbent in 2024. Biden’s slightly edging out Nikki Haley per the poll.
NEW POLL: Former President Trump is leading President Biden by a 7-point margin in a hypothetical 2024 matchup. https://t.co/9jzpGDE1rR
— The Hill (@thehill) May 19, 2023
At any rate, eighteen months out from election day 2024, these kinds of polls are mostly meaningless. It’s impossible to predict with precision what events will occur between now and then, what effects they’ll have on public opinion, and what dirty tricks the Deep State will pull to rig the election the same way it did in 2020 to tip the scales for Biden.
But perhaps the more interesting findings pertain to the seven-year Russiagate conspiracy theory, which posits that Trump was placed into office by Vladimir Putin in 2016.
56% of respondents, when prompted with the question “Do you think Donald Trump worked in concert with Russia to win the presidency or was that a false story?” responded that it was a false story.
An equal percentage, when asked “Do you think that the Steele dossier that included salacious accusations against Trump in a Russian hotel and stated Russia had a tape of what transpired was a true story, or was it a false story?” responded that it was also false.
For the record, it was. It was planted by a political opponent. In fact, it was worse than planted; the Deep State allegedly offered a cash reward if the proprietor of the dossier could prove it: “Shortly before the 2016 election, the FBI offered retired British spy Christopher Steele “up to $1 million” to prove the explosive allegations in his dossier about Donald Trump, a senior FBI analyst testified Tuesday,” per CNN reporting.
To start:
Majorities of Americans say it's *false* that Trump colluded with Russia. The the Steele Dossier is also "false."
In other words, they view the story the US media aggressively centered for 3 years as a hoax and a fraud, yet NBC and CNN won't even air this view. pic.twitter.com/wqULHK4Rd9
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 21, 2023
Related: Suspicion Surrounds White House U-Haul Attack
The respondents are equally skeptical of the manufactured “Russian disinformation” narrative surrounding Hunter Biden’s confirmed laptop. 59% understand the laptop, which showed Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings on behalf of “The Big Guy,” among other lurid material, was real.
Americans also believe that the materials on the Hunter Biden laptop are real, and are not and never were "Russian disinformation."
So again, Americans view the claim that the US corporate media and CIA spread for weeks before the 2020 election – to help Biden win – as a fraud. pic.twitter.com/aPYmU4jqyz
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 21, 2023
Also noteworthy is the fact that “less than a third of voters say the US is on the right track” and “two-thirds believe the country is headed in the wrong direction,” according to the survey. The real question is: who is the out-of-touch third of the country who thinks that everything that’s going on in the U.S. is kosher?
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