It’s almost laughable that Democrats thought that their tantrums, protest signs, and matching outfits were a winning strategy during Trump’s speech to Congress. But desperate to prove their “resistance,” they went all in. Trump had barely begun speaking before security had to forcibly remove Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) from the chamber.
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Yet despite the Democrats’ best efforts to disrupt and grandstand, Trump delivered an incredible, uplifting speech. It was direct, at times partisan, but undeniably powerful. It was packed with heartwarming, unifying moments — every one of which Democrats stubbornly refused to stand or applaud for.
And it’s going to backfire on them spectacularly. CNN’s post-speech analysis made one thing clear — Americans loved Trump’s speech. And, predictably, CNN hated that.
Despite a strong majority of viewers reacting positively, the network’s talking heads bent over backward to downplay the numbers.
Jake Tapper set the tone early, bringing in CNN’s political director, David Chalian, to discuss the results. “David, how did the voters that you snap-polled feel about the speech?” Tapper asked.
Before even answering the question, Chalian sought to undercut the results. “Well, first, I just want to mention, Jake, this is a poll of speech watchers, not a poll that is representative of the country overall, or what an electorate, an election looks like,” he cautioned. He then pointed out that the sample had “21% Democrat, 44% Republican… 35% independent,” emphasizing that it was “about 14 points more Republican than the overall general population.”
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Finally, he got to the numbers: “Forty-four percent of speech watchers in our instant poll tonight say they had a very positive reaction to Trump’s speech, 25% somewhat positive, 31% negative.” That meant that a full 69% of viewers had a positive reaction. But instead of acknowledging that reality, Chalian immediately worked to diminish it.
Related: Trump’s Two Epic Mic Drop Moments During His Speech I Can’t Get Over
“How does that stack up against Donald Trump’s previous addresses to Joint Sessions of Congress or State of the Union addresses?” he continued. “Forty-four percent very positive reaction is actually his low watermark in all our instant polls after his previous addresses.”
Chalian then compared the number to past speeches, pointing out that Trump had been “higher in terms of very positive speech reaction” in 2019, 2018, and 2017. He also noted that Biden’s 2021 speech had received “51% very positive,” while Trump’s 2017 speech had hit “57%,” and that “Bush and Obama [had] even higher than that.”
Summing it up, Chalian admitted, “So this was not Donald Trump’s best speech, but obviously still the plurality of speech watchers had a very positive reaction to it, Jake.”
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🚨 CNN: 69% of Americans had a positive reaction to President Trump’s speech. Nice! pic.twitter.com/SZ3fZy9G24
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 5, 2025
The network’s reluctance to acknowledge the speech’s strong reception and painstaking effort to downplay the results was obvious. Despite the numbers showing a clear majority responding positively, CNN spent more time making excuses than analyzing why Trump’s message resonated. CNN even had to frame good news for Trump as a letdown. This was a bad night for the Democrats, which they made worse by their tantrums, and CNN knows it.
