Mediaboss Marketing

Over three years into his tenure in the nation's highest office and five months before the country weighs in on his re-election, President Donald Trumps struggles with older women, an important voting bloc for November, appear more acute in the middle of twin crises.

In 2016, Trump tilted the election in his favor after narrowly winning a handful of battleground states, and partly by performing well among white women - and older voters - even against the first-ever female nominee. Four years ago, although Hillary Clinton won women overall by a 13-point margin, Trump only lost women over 45 by 3 points (47%-50%), and won over both white women and voters over 45 with 52%, according to national exit poll data.

But this cycle, Trump is not only trailing Biden nationally by 10 points among registered voters in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll released earlier this week, hes also seeing waning support among women over 45. Biden is now leading Trump among this group by 17 points, compared to 9 in March, in the latest poll.

Lara Trump gives an interview after a gathering of Donald Trump for President Women for Trump coalition kickoff in King of Prussia, Pa., on July 16, 2019.

Its a hurdle that is emerging as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the nations seniors and Trump's "law and order" vision of leadership is up against its most critical test of his presidency as the country is engulfed by nationwide protests over racial injustice and police brutality.

In follow-up interviews with nearly a dozen women over 45, who span the ideological spectrum and geographic map, that participated in the ABC News/Washington Post poll, including some who formerly voted for Trump the first time around, most are turned off by his abrasive demeanor, divisive rhetoric and the tweets.

"I voted for Trump. I did not care for Hillary. She was just not the role model I wanted for the first woman president," said Shannon Gridley, 78, from Orlando, Fla. Orlando sits along Floridas crucial I-4 corridor in central Florida, which is often seen as a bellwether in the battleground.

A path to victory for Trump this cycle is expected to run through Florida, where older voters have an outsize role in the electoral fortunes of candidates in the state. In 2016, Trump won Florida by just over 1 percentage point.

Gridley, who said she identifies along the "moderate avenue," has been voting since the 1960s, starting with President John F. Kennedy. She is currently a registered Democrat and is voting for Biden in the fall, but has historically voted for Republicans far more, she said.

Behind her 2016 decision, as she put it, was the notion that as an outsider, Trump might "shake things up."

"Well, by god, he has shook things up, that is for absolutely sure," she said. "He disappointed me pretty soon. I didn't like the way he talked. I didn't think he was professional. I did not think he was presidential. I just haven't agreed with much of anything that he's done."

Another female voter, Donna, who declined to share her last name, from Springfield, Mass., which sits in the western portion of the state, told ABC News shes voted Republican in the last two presidential elections, saying of 2016, "I was not happy four years ago with either of the candidates, but Hillary Clinton was the worst of the two."

"I voted for Donald Trump and hoped that he would rise to the occasion," she said. "Obviously, he hasn't. He is a petulant, junior high mentality candidate, and I feel that our country can do far better than that."

She is now backing Biden in November, she told ABC News.

Elizabeth Vath, too, voted for Trump in 2016. But the 75-year old Republican from Glen Mills, Pa., is siding with Biden, she said, "because of the fact that I didn't see Trump do what he promised to do. I voted for Trump because I thought he was going to do something better for our country."

"Hes lying," she continued. "He doesnt keep his promises. He curses and he swears and the language just turns me off. Im sorry, but I was never brought up that way."

Pennsylvania was one of the three key battlegrounds that put Trump over the top last cycle, where he defeated Clinton by the slimmest of margins - 0.7 percentage points. It is also home to a majority female population, and one that also skews older than the country, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau compiled by the Pennsylvania State Data Center at Penn State Harrisburg.

Even a supporter of the president, who is voting for him in November, said she is repelled by what she sees as his immaturities and offensive language.

"I personally cannot listen to him on TV. There are a lot of times I would like to smack him and say, you know, your mother should have taught you better than to talk like that," Suzanne Sloane, 53, from Kalamazoo County, Mich., told ABC News in a follow-up interview. "I cringe ... I want a person who can stand up and support our values and support our country without getting down to a five-year-olds level of name-calling."

Demonstrators take a knee, June 2, 2020, in Philadelphia, during a protest over the death of George Floyd.

The Trump campaign did not respond to ABC News multiple requests for details about their strategy to bring this key demographic into the fold for the upcoming election.

Last year, the Trump campaign made its first major push for its "Women for Trump" coalition in August with a string of cross-country events to mobilize suburban women in key battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The campaign launched the coalition focused on courting the women vote in July 2019.

Suburban women, in particular, represent a key voting demographic that was once the bedrock of the GOP but has been shifting away from the party in the Trump era.

In the 2018 midterms, when Democrats picked up 40 seats and the House majority, women accounted for 53% of voters, voting for Democratic House candidates by 60-39%. In 2019, in statewide and local contests in Virginia, Kentucky, Iowa and Pennsylvania, Republicans saw an erosion of support among suburban voters - and women in particular - allowing Democrats to overcome the allure of Trumpism. And the results were costly for Republicans.

This opposition could continue into 2020, and would be particularly damaging in battlegrounds across the electoral map, where a small shift in support could sway a state.

With dual crises now at the forefront of Trump's presidency, most of the women over the age of 45 that ABC News spoke with in follow-up interviews view the unfolding events as ripely exposing the unsettling and disqualifying aspects of Trump.

"His whole way to address the COVID-19 has been, excuse me, a s--- show," Donna said.

"Trump has been doing a rotten job with health care as well as with the epidemic. We can only pray and hope and vote," Vath said.

Pamela Cooper, 62, from Kannapolis, N.C., which sits in the suburbs of Charlotte, is supporting Biden in the general election, after having voted Republican up until Trump, because she said, "I think that he is definitely promoting racism."

"The pandemic is scary enough without the rioting," she said. "The only way to fight all of this is with love and understanding and compassion...violence against violence never works. These are just scary, scary times and we need a new leader."

Lynda, a voter who decided not to give her last name, from Kent County, Mich., which covers Grand Rapids and its suburbs and sided with Trump by a three-point margin in 2016, said she is "not impressed with Trump. Ive got bitter feelings towards Trump. Im not happy with the way he has dealt with his power and neglected the American people."

He is sowing division, she said, at a time when the country is looking for comfort and solidarity.

"He's supposed to be uniting everybody, not dividing everybody. He is supposed to be taking care of us," she said. "I think Trump should be more focused on the White House, the American people and leave Twitter alone."

But the election still all comes down to Trump.

For the most part, the interviews with these women revealed that many see the contest as a referendum on his administration and his leadership, with most saying their decision is fueled by, as Donna said, "a push against Donald Trump," rather than a pull towards Biden.

"If Biden is the only Democrat, I will vote for Biden," Lynda said. "I wish I had another option but I don't at the moment."

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden poses for a picture with Pastor of the Bethel AME Church, Rev. Dr. Silvester S. Beaman and attendees during a visit to the Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, June 1, 2020.

"There's nothing in particular about Biden," said Sarah Schrock, a self-identified independent that is currently registered as a Democrat to vote this year, from Lucas County, Ohio. "Hes the lesser of two evils."

"Id rather vote against Trump than sit out," she added.

One voter from Pima County, Ariz., Ruby, who refused to give her last name, casted her choice to pick Biden as binary, saying there is "only one reason" before adding, "Im voting against Trump." She does not identify with either party.

Rorie Baker, 70, from Orange County, Calif., which was a GOP stronghold in blue California until 2018, is casting her ballot for Biden since "hes the absolute opposite of Trump. Trump is an unbelievably incompetent man. He has no couth, no class."

But regardless of the outcome of the election, some of the women are deeply frustrated by the stark partisanship and discord rippling through the country.

"I'm more of a moderate," Sloane, the Trump-backer, said, "and I get left out."

"I just wish we had better choices," she lamented of 2020, before returning to 2016. "I'm frustrated that when the Republicans had 20 people to put out there, you had 20 people and no choice."

ABC News' Will Steakin contributed reporting.

More:
'A push against Donald Trump': Why some older women are turning away from the president - ABC News

Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump holds a Bible in front of boarded up St John's Episcopal Church after walking across Lafayette Square from the White House on June 1. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

For any other politician, President Trumps response this week to a question about his faith would have inspired cringing from religious Americans.

During an interview being conducted by Sean Spicer, his former press secretary asked if Trump had grown in his faith.

I think maybe I have, from the standpoint that I see so much that I can do, Trump replied. Ive done so much for religion. The Johnson amendment. Getting rid of Mexico City. Nobody thought any of this stuff would happen. Two Supreme Court justices."

Subscribe to the Post Most newsletter: Todays most popular stories on The Washington Post

By the way, he continued, if the other side and I call them the radical left because, [former vice president Joe] Biden has gone way left but he doesnt know where he is. But hes surrounded by people that are put there that are serious radical left. You wont have a Second Amendment. You wont have religious liberty. You wont have anything.

That, in a nutshell is the case Trump makes to conservative religious voters. They know that his life isnt an ideal model of their values and he knows that they know that. But he also knows that continuing to deliver conservative judges, a platform for the antiabortion movement and a focus on empowering religious institutions and actors will endear them to him.

He knows, too, that evangelical voters would prefer an occasionally religious president who consistently prioritizes their concerns to a pious Democrat whos more socially liberal. Its important to note that white evangelical Protestant Americans arent unusually supportive of Trump simply because of religion. Its also because theyre heavily Republican, as Pew Research Center data released last year indicate. Among white evangelical Protestants, 77 percent identify as Republican or Republican-leaning a remarkably dense overlap of religion and party.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported a sudden sign of shakiness within this group. Polling from PRRI released this week indicates that approval of Trump among evangelical voters has fallen nearly 20 points since March. Among white Catholics, the decline has been nearly as sharp.

As the Timess Jeremy Peters notes, thats significant. An analysis of the 2016 electorate completed by Pew shows that white evangelicals and white Catholics were more supportive of Trump than any other religious group. He won the latter group by 33 points and evangelicals by 61 points over Hillary Clinton.

More important, Pews data suggest that more than half of the votes Trump received that year came from voters who fit into one of those two groups. A fifth of his support was from white Catholics. Fully a third was from white evangelical Protestants.

Erosion in his approval among those two groups, then, is significant. Lose 20 percent of his support from black Protestants and hes losing well, we dont know since his support from that group was hard to measure in the first place. Lose 20 percent of his Catholic support, though, and hes risking 4 percent of his overall support.

There are some important caveats, though. One is that the decline since March measures current approval relative to a recent peak. PRRI also has data from 2019; comparing the most recent evangelical support to that figure shows a drop of only 2 points among evangelicals. Among Catholics, the drop is still 12 points a less problematic drop, but still a problematic one.

To Trumps point, theres also the question of what a drop in approval from these core constituencies means. If it means they are slightly less enthusiastic about voting for him than they might otherwise be, so be it. A vote is a vote, even a grudging one. As weve noted, Trumps 2016 victory can be attributed to voters who disliked both him and Clinton but voted for him anyway. An evangelical whose view of Trump is lukewarm but votes for Trump is a vote for Trump. That evangelical is not likely to demonstrate that lack of enthusiasm by voting for Biden.

The problem with a drop in approval is less losing votes to Biden than losing votes because people stay home. The opposite of wanting to vote for someone isnt necessarily voting for his opponent; it can also be not voting at all. Thats the concern Trumps team should worry about. Lose 10 percent of Catholic voters who simply dont feel motivated to vote at all, and youre still shedding 2 percent of your 2016 electorate.

This is the part of articles about general election polling in which we note that there are months to go and billions of dollars still to be spent. If the election were held today, polling suggests that Biden could win by a double-digit margin nationally, the sort of margin which makes slight erosion from a religious demographic irrelevant.

That said, the poll above does suggest a few ways in which Trump might want to spend those months and those dollars: ads highlighting the message he offered Spicer.

See the article here:
A third of Trump's support in 2016 came from evangelicals and he hasn't lost them yet - MSN Money

Effie Caldarola

By Effie Caldarola Catholic News Service Posted June 5, 2020

The year was 2012, ancient history in our Twitter-universe. But to me, as recent as yesterdays headline.

Trayvon Martin was 17 years old, wearing a hoodie on a chilly night. Hed been to the convenience store for snacks and was walking to his dads apartment.

He was accosted by a self-appointed vigilante, a neighborhood watch captain, named George Zimmerman. To Zimmerman, a black kid in a hoodie was a suspicious character. Zimmerman called police and was told to stay in his vehicle and not follow Martin.

He disregarded that advice, with tragic results. Well never know the exact details, but a scuffle ensued. Zimmerman had a gun. Why? Why are there always guns? Martin paid with his life. Zimmerman, the predator, was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter.

In 2012, I had a son a few years older than Trayvon. We jokingly called him, as a kid, the mayor of Oceanview, our neighborhood in Anchorage, Alaska. He was everywhere, a kid on his bike, sometimes in a hoodie.

Like Trayvon, Mike was neither a troublemaker nor a perfect kid. I felt he was safe, though, in our community, with our neighbors and our police. The talk with white kids was about sex; with black kids, it was about survival.

Our president in 2012, Barack Obama, empathetic in crises, said that if he had a son, he would look just like Trayvon Martin. My Irish-Italian son did not look like Trayvon, the handsome black child of black parents. And yet, to me they looked painfully similar. They were, as kids will say, brothers from another mother.

Because, honestly, if youve ever done genealogy, you know were all eventually cousins. We mothers feel every mothers pain, because every child is ours.

In the past several days, an egregious killing, less ambiguous, visually stunning, brought our country into national consensus. The deliberate, vicious killing of George Floyd shook us. We yearn to think that after all the years of deaths, of injustice, of assassinations, that maybe this time things will be different.

But will they?

This November, the ballot box in every state, every city and county, will be a sacred place. Those who peacefully protested and they number in the thousands and thousands must register and vote. We must fight for voting by mail and resist voter suppression. We must stand up, as mothers of every son and daughter.

For our church, this is a pivotal moment. I know a nun, very old now, who was at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. Her bishop, after seeing protesters beaten there, wanted a visible Catholic presence. Clergy came in their collars, nuns in their long serge habits.

We need desperately, now, to see and hear that Catholic presence. For the integrity of our American church, to ensure the churchs future with our youth, to be a church that witnesses Christ poor among us, we need presence.

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, took a knee, very visibly, at a June 1 demonstration to pray for George Floyd. Two days later, Pope Francis called to thank him.

Washington Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory protested that it was baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated after President Donald Trump used the St. John Paul II National Shrine for a photo op.

Seattle Archbishop Paul D. Etienne said of another photo, The word of God is not a prop.

Pray God this is the vanguard of church leadership for justice. The times demand that this be our moment.

Go here to see the original:
This is the church's moment to show Black Lives Matter - CatholicPhilly.com

A third night of protests erupted in Louisville over the police shooting of Breonna Taylor, an African American who was unarmed when police executed a "no-knock" search warrant at her apartment Louisville Courier Journal

I have lived in Atlanta and remain ahomeowner in Georgia, where Ahmaud Arbery was killed by a former police detective. I have lived in Dallas, where a police officer killed Botham Jean in his own apartment. I have lived in Charlotte, where former Florida A&M Universityfootball player Jonathan Ferrell sought help after a car accident and ended up being killed by a police officer. I've lived in Minneapolis, where life was choked out of George Floyd by a police officer, and in nearby St. Paul, where Philando Castile was gunned down by an officer during a traffic stop.

I'm from Sanford, Florida, where vigilante George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. I now live in Louisville,where Breonna Taylor was shot eight times and killed by police in March after they entered her residence on a no-knock warrantat 12:40 a.m.

I am exhausted. I am enraged. I'm fed up and I'm hurting. I am afraid for black men and women. I am afraid for this country.

Our view: George Floyd protests: Dont deploy active duty American troops to battleAmericans

Opposing view: American carnage: These aren't protests they're riots. Someone must end the lawlessness.

I am disturbed and disappointed by the burning buildings and destroyed communities.

But I am not distracted. These fires weren't sparked out of thin air.

The anguish of racism, the pain of inequity and the absence of justice are the agents of outrage.

Shattered storefronts representshattered communities. Looting is inexcusable. So, too, is the theft of hopes and dreams and futures of peoplesnuffed out by police brutality.

Rana Cash, sports director(Photo: Courier Journal)

Burning down buildings solves absolutely nothing. Instead, set aflame the systems that set the stage for economic imbalance, health disparities exasperated by COVID-19, educational gaps and a criminal justice structure that has a stranglehold on black and brown people.

Buildings will be restored, but jobs will be lostandlives will be changed beyond the damage already dealt by the coronavirus. And while violence has too often been the answer for police, it is not the answer for those demanding justice reform and an overhaul ofpractices and policiesthat have disenfranchised black lives.

Time to face up: America's overdue reckoning with white supremacy: 'We have allowed evil to flourish'

The work of eradicating 400 years of racism is harder. The work of eliminating police brutality is harder. The path to healing from trauma induced by videos on a loop of murdered black bodies is treacherous.

It's much easier to condemn violent riots and call for peace than it is to fix a system that isn't broken, but is doing exactly what it was built to do. Alas, this is the work of creating from the ground up a new, fair andjust system for all.

Rana L. Cash is the editor of the Savannah Morning News and Georgia state director for the USA TODAY Network. This column originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal. Follow her onTwitter:@rana_cash

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/06/06/police-brutality-violence-looting-racism-column/3146031001/

Read this article:
Looting is inexcusable. So is the ongoing police brutality that steals hopes and dreams. - USA TODAY

As many as 10,000 flooded downtown in a noisy but peaceful demonstration

Photo by Melodie Newman

By Hope McKinney

Thousands of protesters dressed in black, faces clad in masks, and carrying signs flooded into downtown Providence Friday afternoon for the Protect Black Lives protest. It was one of many seen around the country and across the globe following the recent killings at the hands of police of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.

The energy felt palpable as protesters of all ages gathered at Kennedy Plaza and walked up to the State House. People driving by were sticking their fists out of their car windows and honking, many shouting their support.

Protesters quickly picked up different chants, No justice, no peace, and, Black lives matter, to Hey hey, ho ho, these racist cops have got to go.

The names of unarmed black people recently murdered by police, including Floyd, 46 at the time of his death, and Taylor, 26, could be heard chanted repeatedly throughout the day. Friday would have been Taylors 27th birthday the tune of Happy Birthday erupted as the crowd stood outside the State House.

A few speakers were heard urging the city of Providence and the state of Rhode Island to act with love, fighting darkness with light. One of the speakers, 16-year-old Ayee Yeakula, was one of the youth organizers for the protest, alongside Kiara Cruel, 16, and Faith Quinnea, 16.

Elizabeth AVant, a mother from Lincoln who works in the Providence school system, was one of the protesters.

I have three black boys, she said. My oldest is 26 and I have twins that are 23, and every time they leave my house, I worry about if theyre going to be the next victim. So, I have to be here.

She said she felt overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support from the community.

Its really meaningful, she said. Its bringing tears to my eyes to see so many people black, white, of all different denominations.

Macey Hardin from Bristol talked about what it was like being a black person growing up in a predominantly white town.

Brett Smiley and Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott at the State House during Fridays protest.

All throughout elementary school, I was literally the only African American there and I feel like I was targeted a lot just because of my race, she said. They tried to paint me out to be the problem black kid. Im fighting for the 8-year-old girl that I used to be and Im also fighting for my future kids who will be African American, as well. This is just not a world they belong in, so we need to change it right away.

AVant and Hardin urged people to educate themselves and be vocal.

Silence does nothing, Hardin said. Do as much as you can. Donating. Even just Instagram posts. Theres nothing too small, everything is good enough to show your support.

Theres some really, really good books out there on the market that you can read about anti-racism, about privilege, said AVant. People dont like to hear that term white privilege. Its real. So, do some reading. Open your mind.

As the sun began to set and the air cooled, some protesters headed out, while others broke off from the crowd and created different groups. The Sam Cooke song A Change is Gonna Come, widely known for representing the struggles of black people in America, floated throughout the area, providing a sense of calm after the vivacious noise at the State House.

Photo by Melodie Newman

One group got on their knees surrounding Ibiolatiwa Akomolafe, a young woman who recited,

Capitalize the A in America and remember to capitalize the T in Trayvon Martin, recalling the death of 17-year-old Travyon Martin killed by vigilante George Zimmerman, 28, in Florida in 2012. Zimmerman was later acquitted.

At around 7:30 p.m., Superintendent of the State Police Department, Colonel James Manni, spoke about the protest.

We found the protesters to be respectful overall, and well-organized, and they exercised their constitutional rights First Amendment, freedom of speech and we respect that, he said. We stood with them and continue to let them exercise their right.

As for any concerns about the aftermath of protesters continuing past the 9 p.m. curfew, set after the looting and vandalism earlier in the week, he said he felt hopeful.

Im not nervous about it, he said. Its always a concern, you know, public safetys a priority here in the city of Providence and I just hope it remains calm throughout the night and that it remains respectful to everyone and we get through it.

Members of the R.I. National Guard and police officers were seen on the outskirts of the protest, quietly watching from afar, even engaging with many protesters.

Intermittently, some protesters chanted, Wheres Gina? Soon after curfew, Governor Gina Raimondo went out to the steps of the State House, thanking the protesters for remaining peaceful.

I want you to know that I hear you, Im praying with you and Im fully committed to taking action and working with you to eliminate racism in RI, she wrote on Twitter.

Soon after, a moment of silence was held for the victims of police brutality. A protester yelled, Make some noise for George Floyd! Protesters erupted in applause.

Multiple live streams showed protesters continuing to march throughout the city until almost 11 p.m. Many people on the streets were outstretched from their homes, yelling in support of the movement.

Police let protesters continue to march past 9 p.m. despite the curfew. Raimondo did make an appearance outside the State House, strongly urging remaining protesters to remain peaceful and offering a prayer. As WPRI reporter Kim Kalunian tweeted out, not everyone was on board with Raimondo at that point. And things got tense in other parts of downtown, but peace held.

At one point, protesters seemed to be cornered by state police on Broadway but were eventually allowed to keep walking.

Some ended up marching back to Kennedy Plaza alongside officers, seemingly ending the day of the protest on a positive note.

United we stand, divided we fall! a protester yelled over a megaphone.

If you value what you find on East Greenwich News, consider making a donation. We are a 501(c)(3). Use the button below or, if youd rather mail something, send it to EG News, 18 Prospect St., E.G., RI 02818. Thanks every contribution helps.

See the original post:
Thousands Gather in Providence in Support of Black Lives East Greenwich News - East Greenwich News