"Pathetic." "Discouraged." "Pessimistic." Those are some of the sentiments shared by non-whites who were recently asked to share their feelings about the economy under President Biden, Politico reports.
Liberal polling firm HIT Strategies hosted a focus group of eight non-white voters last week, and found them uniformly unimpressed with President Biden's handling of the economy. HIT uses "research and data to understand and communicate with hard-to-reach and underrepresented voters."
A new Quinnipiac University poll found 58% of all Americans give Biden a thumbs-down on the economy. In a worrisome stat for Democratic Party officials gearing up for the 2024 election, 35% of blacks give him a failing grade, as do 50% of Hispanics. The latest Emerson poll has a nationwide Biden-Trump contest as a dead heat, with Biden at 44.4% and Trump at 44.0%.
Some in the "people of color" focus group said they preferred the economy under Trump. “Our economy is the lowest it’s been in God knows how long,” said a Hispanic from New Jersey. “We keep [sending] money to Ukraine and other countries rather than helping ourselves.”
“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” said an Asian American or Pacific Islander participant. “They’re kind of like saying that there possibly is going to be a soft landing, but they’re also expecting a recession of some sorts. It’s kind of a mixed message.”
Some long for an alternative beyond Trump and Biden. “I’m definitely not happy with where America was when Trump was president," said a black man from Cleveland who's a registered Democrat. "And I’m not happy with where America is, now that Biden’s president. We’ve already had years of both of them being president and with no kind of good results. So I’m hoping there’s some other you know, candidate or alternative besides these two.”
While members of the focus group said their economy was their number-one concern, they also hammered Biden on crime and management of the border.
Beyond individual candidates, focus group participants also expressed exasperation with America's two principal parties. "I don’t feel like Democrats really have my back … or Republicans, you know?” said a Los Angeles black-and-Latino man. He gave Trump credit on the economy, however. “Trump got in there and he changed stuff."
Asked about indictments against Trump and accusations that he fosters white nationalism, the black-and-Latino man shrugged it off: “If you’re getting the job done, I can’t really hate on that.”