‘They Are Not Stupid!’ Larry Sabato, MS NOW’s Katy Tur Defend Trump Voters

Political polling guru Larry Sabato joined forces with MS NOW’s Katy Tur on Monday to defend Trump voters for falling victim to the president’s hyperbole.

Sabato runs the Center For Politics at the University of Virginia, as well as the Crystal Ball politics forecast.

“Seventy-six percent of Ohio voters say Trump’s policies have raised the cost of living in their state,” Tur said. “So, as Molly [Jong-Fast] was saying, even 15,000 jobs in one state — clearly, so far — not enough to offset the general distaste for how this administration has gone.”

“Of course, you wonder what the other 24% are looking at,” Sabato said. “But look, if you’re lucky enough to get one of the manufacturing jobs, it’s probably well-paid. You’re quite happy, your family’s quite happy, but you’re greatly outnumbered by the hundreds of thousands, or millions of people who are paying more for absolutely everything. The costs and prices and inflation, you know, the costs that were supposed to go down on day one of Trump’s presidency, and that never happened.”

Sabato continued:

And then the war in Iran, which everybody has had enough time over these many, many months of non-resolution to understand that the increase in gas prices and diesel prices, and again, everything else the trucks carry, is due to this very unpopular and unsuccessful war. So you put it all together, and then on top, frosting that’s kind of rancid, of corruption. And every day there’s something new. Every day there’s another example that’s outrageous. Usually, with some member of the Trump family involved. Well, you know, put it all together.

The mistake that some Democrats — and I love ’em — make is they call the Trump voters stupid. They are not stupid! They were voting for what they thought was a legitimate alternative because they were angry about other things in 2016, 2024. But what’s important to remember is they know what they’re paying. And they also realize that there are times when they either have to just abstain from voting, which many may do, or if they can manage to do it, vote for the other party.

Tur built on Sabato’s sentiment, saying, “They felt like their life was not going well. They were promised something that was never delivered on. There was a disillusionment with government in general — both parties. Donald Trump came along and said, ‘I’m not a part of any of this. I’m an outsider and I can fix it.‘ And people bought it. And when he came along the second time, they bought it again because they were not happy with Joe Biden, who was a candidate that they looked to and, you know, wasn’t selling himself or any of the things that he had done. They hadn’t seen results for it. And so they voted again.”

Watch the clip above via MS NOW.

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