() –Over the past week, Americans were more likely to hear news about former President Donald Trump than Vice President Kamala Harris, according to The Breakthrougha polling project that tracks what average Americans actually listen to, read and watch about the presidential candidates throughout the campaign.
But after a series of high-profile news stories that attracted attention from across the political spectrum, including the presidential debate and the first assassination attempt against Trump, this week’s data shows a significant divergence between what Democrats and Republicans recalled hearing about the Republican candidate. Republicans focused more on the assassination attempt against the former president in Florida earlier this month, while Democrats continued to say they were hearing more about his baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.
In the most recent survey, conducted September 20-23 by SSRS and Verasight on behalf of a research team from , Georgetown University and the University of Michigan, three-quarters of Americans said they had read at least some news about Trump, slightly beating the 69% who said the same about Harris. That’s a change from late August and early September, when roughly equal percentages recalled hearing news about each of the candidates.
Republicans were much more likely than Democrats to mention the word “murder” and other phrases related to Trump’s assassination attempt, such as references to the golf course where the attempt took place.
“Donald Trump has been campaigning and the situation is becoming dangerous for him. He recently suffered a second assassination attempt on a golf course,” one respondent wrote.
Democrats were more likely to focus on the September presidential debatementioning words like “lie” and references to Trump’s false claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets. “Keep spreading the Springfield story about Haitian immigrants eating local pets,” another respondent wrote. “He is using anti-Semitic tropes in his speeches. “He continues to spread falsehoods about his performance in the debate.”
Political independents mentioned both sets of topics, the survey found, and Americans on the other side were about as likely to mention words that pointed more broadly to the presidential race, such as “campaign” or “election.”
Part of the disparity between Democrats and Republicans may be due to a difference in the sources of information they consume, but it may also reflect differences in the news that resonates most with each group, as well as in the way supporters of each side tend to describe that news when asked, often reflecting their own political feelings.
Meanwhile, when asked what they had seen, read or heard about Harris, Americans’ responses included the word “debate,” a reference to both her performance in her first presidential debate and her stated desire for a rematch against Trump. , as well as his interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The sentiment behind the words Americans used to describe what they had heard about Harris remained more positive than the words they used to describe the news about Trump. This does not mean that they expressed warmer feelings about her personally, but rather that what they said about her tended to be couched in relatively positive terms and tones.
However, the gap in feelings about the two candidates was significantly smaller than last week after the debate. The tone of responses related to Harris was slightly more negative than positive, bringing her sentiment to a level similar to what it was before the debate, while Trump’s remained in negative territory.
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