As Facts First USA briefs allies on our efforts, it’s important that we share key takeaways from our initial poll to help guide messaging and to ensure a consistent approach to speaking about congressional investigations.[1] We expect this messaging guidance to evolve as public awareness does.
[Download a pdf version of this memo here]
Here’s what we learned:
Americans Do Not Like or Trust MAGA Republicans. Republicans are allowing deeply unpopular congressmembers to become their spokespeople. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, and Kevin McCarthy have very high unfavorables. Not only aren’t MAGA Republicans liked, but they’re also not trusted. And that distrust extends to other top Republicans, across both the House and Senate.
The public believes that Republicans are acting based on political motivations and our messages should reinforce that idea. One of the strongest responses in the poll came from the argument that Republicans have already prejudged the outcome of these investigations and have already decided to impeach President Biden or other officials. Independents especially viewed this as an effective response to Republican attacks.
Nevertheless, failing to offer a response to Republican attacks creates serious vulnerabilities for President Biden and his administration. Although Americans know that Republicans will be conducting investigations as part of their political arsenal – rather than because the facts demand it – Democrats must respond forcefully to the Republican attacks. Absent strong Democratic messaging and rebuttals, Republican misinformation poses significant risks to President Biden, his administration, and to Democrats more broadly.
Our best and most effective arguments link investigations to extremist MAGA politicians, who can and should be called out by name when appropriate and beneficial. There are commonalities between how Democrats, independents, and persuadable voters react to our messaging; thus we can blunt any and all GOP allegations by making a general case that:
- McCarthy has admitted publicly that there is no basis to impeach President Biden or any Administration official and therefore any support he gives represents putting politics ahead of principle as part of his corrupt bargain to be Speaker and GOP leadership kowtowing to the most extreme MAGA Republicans instead of keeping their campaign promises;
- Extreme MAGA Republicans want impeachment as political revenge for 2020;
- This is election
- denial 2.0; and
- The investigations and claims are politically motivated and lack evidence.
Ultimately, Republicans will likely continue to support the investigations, but when we message properly, virtually all Democrats and a majority of independents agree that the Republican investigations are just politics run amok. While Republican voters find rebuttals centered on McCarthy pandering to extremists and the role of Russian disinformation compelling, these arguments ultimately do not persuade Republicans to oppose impeachment or further investigations. Instead, the vast majority of persuadable voters are either Democrats or independents.
[1] We conducted our polling in late November with a sample size of over 1,000 respondents – including an oversampling of independents.
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This is the second in a series of messaging memos from Facts First. Our first memo put forward the corrupt bargain message to describe Kevin McCarthy’s attempt to buy the votes to become Speaker. That framing has resonated, with allies amplifying the message and the media reporting on each McCarthy deal.