3 in 4 blame all major players for shutdown: Poll

Most Americans pinned the blame on the government shutdown on all parties involved — Republicans, Democrats and President Trump — according to a poll released Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Roughly three-quarters of Americans surveyed said Republicans, Democrats and Trump deserve “a moderate amount” of blame over the shutdown, with 19 percent moderately blaming Republicans, 17 percent moderately blaming Democrats and 25 percent moderately blaming Democrats.

But the shares of those who believed that all respective parties involved hold “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the shutdown were about evenly distributed. The poll shows 58 percent said they felt this way about Republicans and about Trump, while 54 percent placed such responsibility on Democrats.

Independents held both parties and Trump almost equally responsible for the shutdown, the poll found.

Supporters of the major political parties appeared to have different views about the severity of the shutdown issue. Among Democrats, 69 percent said they see it as a “major problem,” while only 37 percent of Republicans said they saw it that way. Independents mostly saw the shutdown as a major problem, at 59 percent. Only 11 percent of independents said they think it’s not a problem, but 28 percent said it’s a minor problem.

Blame has shifted since the shutdown began, when more fingers were being pointed at the president and Republicans. On Tuesday, new polling showed more people placing blame on Democrats.

Democrats and Republicans are at a stalemate with the government still closed after 16 days. During a vote Thursday, Democrats blocked a full-year defense appropriations bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) pushed for the bill’s passage as a means to pay military service members who might not receive paychecks during the shutdown.

“It’s always been unacceptable to Democrats to do the defense bill without other bills that have so many things that are important to the American people in terms of health care, in terms of housing, in terms of safety,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said to reporters before the vote.

The AP-NORC poll was conducted Oct. 9-13 and reached 1,289 respondents. The overall margin of error is 3.8 percentage points.