Democratic pollster John Zogby said that President Trump’s efforts to deal with gun control in the wake of the Ohio and Texas shootings, and also on immigration, faltered this week.
As the lone grader in this week’s White House Report Card, Zogby said that the president failed to bolster his legacy on guns and immigration. Conservative grader Jed Babbin was away.
John Zogby
Grade F
Being a president means needing to lead, not temporarily responding to criticism.
Serious discussions are taking place between House and Senate leadership on meaningful Background Checks. I have also been speaking to the NRA, and others, so that their very strong views can be fully represented and respected. Guns should not be placed in the hands of…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2019
Crowds of mourners yelling to do something, including Republicans and independents and NRA members, mean that President Trump must be out in front on the gun issue. He risks having the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, define his failure to act in the way that George W. Bush was defined by Hurricane Katrina.
His next trip must be to Kentucky to pick up Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and drag him back to D.C. now to ensure federal action — not in September to “consider bipartisan legislation.”
If he is not out front on this, Trump is at risk of pushing his predecessors Buchanan, Pierce, and Fillmore up a notch in presidential rankings.
Not to mention the trade war with China is in full bloom and ICE agents were criticized for rounding up undocumented workers in Mississippi as their children went back to school. They entered the United States but hoped they were coming to America.
This was a legacy week for the president, and it was very bad.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is We are Many, We are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America. Follow him on Twitter @TheJohnZogby
