McCain’s war hero status is not in question with the American voter, but his service to our nation as a Senator is clearly an issue…
Donald Trump leads the GOP presidential field again this week, though controversial remarks about Sen. John McCain may have dented his popularity among Republicans
Donald Trump’s rise in the Republican contest for the 2016 presidential nomination doesn’t appear to have been slowed much – at least not yet – by the recent controversy over his criticisms of Arizona Sen. John McCain’s war record last weekend. In fact, although Trump’s favorable ratings among Republicans have declined, he is still ahead – and far ahead – when Republicans are asked to choose among the 16 currently announced candidates.
In last week’s poll, Donald Trump received the highest favorable ratings of any candidate from Republicans, apparently helped by his tough position on illegal immigration. This week, however, Trump’s favorable ratings dropped 11 points, and his unfavorable rating has risen 15 points.
DONALD TRUMP AND JOHN MCCAIN
A separate YouGov poll completed Wednesday suggests a reason why the McCain controversy may not have affected Trump as much as some expected. Two out of three Republicans view McCain as a war hero. But fewer say they have a favorable opinion of him. In fact, Republicans in that poll gave both Trump and McCain similar ratings.
The differences between the Trump favorable ratings in the Economist/YouGov Poll and the daily poll are not significant.
In addition, while a majority of Republicans (54%) think Trump should apologize for this statement about Trump: “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero ‘cause he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured. OK? Perhaps he was a war hero, but now he‘s said some very bad things about a lot of people.” 32% of Republicans believe he doesn’t need to apologize. In fact, more Democrats than Republicans want Trump to apologize.
Even more striking, veterans and those currently in the military are more likely to have favorable views of Trump than to have favorable views of McCain. 41% say they have favorable views of McCain, while more than half are favorable to Trump.
Veterans are divided on whether Trump owes McCain an apology.
While a core of Republicans appear to have coalesced around a Trump candidacy, the New York businessman has yet to cross the threshold of being viewed as a likely winner with many Republicans. More than three times as many Republican-identifying registered voters view Bush as the likely Republican nominee than say Trump is that person. 36% call Bush the likely winner, 11% choose Walker, and just 10% name Trump.
Via: YouGov US
