A new NBC News poll found that 52% of voters blame Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress for the ongoing government shutdown, while 42% blame Democrats.
But that’s not all the bad news for Republicans. According to the same poll, Democrats appear to have an early lead in next year’s fight for control of Congress: 50% of Americans want the Democratic Party to take back the two chambers, and 42% want Republicans to remain in power.
Joe Scarborough reacted to the new polls on Monday’s “Morning Joe,” calling them “deadly numbers” for the GOP. “You can look at these numbers and understand it’s a problem for the party in power,” Scarborough said.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski said she wasn’t surprised by the dire poll numbers, noting that it’s not uncommon for voters to blame the president and the party in control when there’s a government shutdown. “He owns it,” Brzezinski said of Trump.
“Right now, things seem to be breaking against Republicans,” Scarborough agreed.
According to the “Morning Joe” panel, it’s clear that Trump is beginning to feel the heat. The president told “60 Minutes” on Sunday that he would like Republicans to take the “nuclear option” and end the filibuster to pass a government funding bill without Democrats.
That idea has been repeatedly shut down by Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and other Republicans in the chamber.
Scarborough noted that the 60-vote threshold seems to be the one place the president’s party understands “that turnabout’s fair play, and what they do unto the Democrats, the Democrats will soon do unto them.”
You can watch the full analysis from “Morning Joe” in the clip at the top of the page.