STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Well, what do voters think about the president's economic performance? Margie Omero joins us next. She's with the public opinion firm GBAO and a longtime strategist for Democrats, and we called her because she spends time in focus groups with voters. Margie, good morning.
MARGIE OMERO: Good morning.
INSKEEP: And welcome back. For those who don't follow us every day, what is a focus group? Why do you talk to voters that way?
OMERO: Well, it's a great way to hear voters talk in their own words, answer questions in their own words, and tell personal stories. So we do them online since COVID, or we do them in person. You have, you know, between five to 10 people in a room or in a Zoom, just answering questions. And so we start with things that are pretty open. Like, fill in the blank - what's one word that tells you, you know, I think things - I think blank is going well in the country these days? What's - how would you fill in the blank?
And people have been saying for a while now, nothing, nothing. There's nothing going well. Or if pushed, they'll say, well, maybe television is going well. Like, that's their sense of how the country is. And so when you ask people about their lives and how they feel personally, they'll tell you really very specific, acute stories of economic struggle, like living with their parents or living with their kids or not being able to afford food or thinking of moving to a place where utility prices are lower or have to use a buy now, pay later app to afford dog food. I mean, we hear some really, really tough stories.
People tear up or cry. I've had people had to leave the room because they get overwhelmed thinking about the pain that they're in. And so when you have the president say affordability is not even a word, it just flies in the face of what voters tell me, you know, nearly every week.
INSKEEP: The president also said inflation is defeated. I guess we should note, it's lower than it was. Prices are still high for a lot of people. People don't feel better about prices?
OMERO: No. I mean, you do hear some people talk about gas prices. That part, you hear. But you - for the most part, people say things are not going well. And you have folks who are skeptical of the president who feel very, very strongly. And you have his supporters who feel, you know, conflicted. Maybe it's OK, or I wish he was better or this was not what I was hoping for, or, you know, I was worried it would be this bad, and now it's actually worse. We hear a wide range of folks, even from his own supporters. And for sure, we hear people across the board say the costs are going up, and there's no sense that there's going to be stability around the corner. People don't - they don't - they're not excited. They're not rooting for chaos.
INSKEEP: Now, I want to ask about something else because the president during his ramble yesterday also talked about the protests in Minnesota against his deployment of immigration agents and also, of course, the shooting of Renee Macklin Good. Let's listen to some of that.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: One of the reasons - they're doing these fake riots. I mean, they're just terrible. I mean, you see it's so fake. Shame, shame, shame. You see the woman? That's all practice. They go practice. They go to areas. They take hotel rooms, and they all practice together. It's a whole scam. We're finding out who's funding all this stuff, too. We pretty much know.
INSKEEP: I just want to remind people of the news as we understand it. Federal prosecutors have resigned because they were told to investigate not the agent who shot Renee Macklin Good, but instead to investigate her widow, to try to find dirt on the widow. And, of course, the administration has portrayed the agent as completely innocent in every way. How do people respond to that incident and the videos they may well have seen themselves in focus groups?
OMERO: Yeah. Well, we're still learning about where voters are on this. Polls show that people disapprove of the way ICE handled that situation. It has come up in focus groups we've done since the incident where people feel like, you know, disgusted and ashamed of what happened - and outrage. And we'll see how that continues. I don't think that the president is offering anything to counter those feelings, you know, the fact that - I mean, it's just something that people have a very consistent reaction to. And when people say they've heard something negative about the president in the last week, we've seen in polling, that comes to the top. That's the news that they're getting out of him.
And in addition to - you know, I think, obviously, it's a different type of story. But when you look at his speech, he goes to make an economic speech, and what really encapsulates how he feels about the American public, then giving the finger, and that ends up being, like, the main news story out of his speech. And you add that to what's happening in Minneapolis, and I'm not equating them, but just a sign of, like, you know, real rejection of the American voter, like, really, like, just putting yourself at odds and insulting the American voter in a way that, you know, people, you know, are hearing loud and clear.
INSKEEP: Margie Omero of the public opinion firm GBAO. Thanks as always.
OMERO: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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