Welcome to Pollapalooza, our occasional polling column. Americans disapprove of Biden pardoning his son For months, President Joe Biden was clear: Despite his constitutional right to pardon people of crimes, he would not issue a pardon for his son Hunter, who was convicted earlier this year for illegally purchasing a firearm and pleaded guilty to tax evasion and filing false tax returns . But on Dec. 1, he went back on his word, issuing a " Full and Unconditional Pardon " of the younger Biden. The pardon covered not only the crimes he's been convicted of, but also any "offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024." Politicians on both sides of the aisle were quick to condemn the pardon as self-serving and hypocritical, and the public's reaction hasn't been much better. According to a YouGov poll conducted on Dec. 2, only 34 percent of Americans approved of the president's decision to pardon his son, while 50 percent disapproved — including 35 percent who "strongly" disapproved. Interestingly, though, that's a more divided reaction than a previous YouGov poll showed back in September 2023, when the idea of a Hunter Biden pardon was completely hypothetical. Back then, only 13 percent of Americans said they would support the president pardoning his son, and 72 percent said they would oppose it — including 56 percent who "strongly" opposed it. If you dig into the polls' crosstabs, you can see that this shift was largely caused by Democrats . In the 2023 poll, Democrats opposed a Hunter Biden pardon 64 percent to 21 percent. But in this week's poll, those numbers were exactly reversed: 64 percent of Democrats approved of the pardon, and 21 percent disapproved. Why the 180? It's possible that the election of President-elect Donald Trump caused Democrats to look at Hunter Biden's situation differently. Trump has promised to prosecute his political enemies , so Democrats may feel that Hunter Biden needs legal protection from being unfairly targeted. During his first term, Trump also pardoned several political allies and has promised to pardon Jan. 6 rioters during his second term, so Democrats may feel that Biden's pardon is mild in comparison. Democrats may also have been convinced by Joe Biden's argument in his pardon notice that Hunter Biden was treated more harshly just because he was the president's son. But it's also possible that Democrats have gotten on board with the Hunter Biden pardon simply because the Democratic president did. Political science research is clear that voters change their opinions about things based on the cues of trusted elites. When Joe Biden was saying that he would " respect the judicial process " with regard to his son's conviction, Democrats agreed with him. When Biden changed his mind and issued the pardon, a lot of Democrats probably followed his cue. And in this, Hunter Biden's is just like most other high-profile presidential pardons over the years. In a separate survey , YouGov asked Americans if they approved or disapproved of 18 specific pardons since the 1970s, and one consistent pattern was that Democrats tended to approve of pardons issued by Democratic presidents and Republicans tended to approve of pardons issued by Republican presidents. As it so often does, partisanship rules all — even in matters of criminal justice. —Nathaniel Rakich Do Trump voters actually like Sarah McBride? This year saw a major milestone for the transgender community: Democrat Sarah McBride was elected as the first openly transgender representative in the House, representing Delaware's at-large congressional district. In the wake of her election, South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace introduced a bill to ban transgender women from using women's restrooms in the U.S. Capitol, which she said was explicitly intended to target McBride. The issue caused some predictable controversy, with multiple members of the House issuing statements and Speaker Mike Johnson announcing a policy to bar transgender women from women's restrooms in the Capitol and House office buildings. In the wake of all this controversy, we'd typically turn to the polls to help us sort out what people think about the incident and the people involved in it. Indeed, YouGov/The Economist asked respondents how they felt about McBride and Mace in their weekly survey after the dispute. According to the poll, Mace had a net favorability of 0, while McBride had a net favorability of +2, though only about half of respondents said they had an opinion of either woman. But a look under the hood provides a bit of insight — and a note of caution — about interpreting polling data on relatively unknown public figures. Both politicians were assessed in what's known as a "favorability battery," in which a pollster shows respondents a list of people and asks if they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of each. The battery here included 14 people, some of whom, like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, are outspoken Trump allies. In fact, other than McBride and Mace, every name on the list was someone that Trump has nominated to a position in his upcoming administration. And it appears that respondents figured that out: Each person had higher favorability ratings among Trump voters than Harris voters. That included McBride, which may indicate respondents who hadn't actually heard of her before assumed she was affiliated with Trump's incoming administration, rather than a political figure who'd made the news for very different reasons. While Trump voters may have been inclined to rate all of Trump's nominees positively, Harris voters appear to have done the opposite. According to this survey, McBride's favorability is underwater by 10 points among Harris voters, while she enjoys a positive 20 point net favorability among Trump voters. In addition, 46 percent of respondents to the survey gave an opinion of McBride, an implausibly large number claiming to be familiar with a freshly elected representative from one of America's smallest states. This is just one example of a poll that appears to tell us one thing on the surface, but underneath it may be measuring something completely different. In this case, we see a significant number of respondents who appear to be answering the survey based entirely on perceived partisanship (we sometimes call this expressive responding ). And while normally we might say to just "throw it in the average," in this case we can't: This is the only national survey we've seen that asked Americans how they feel about McBride. Unfortunately for us, it looks like we still don't really know. —Mary Radcliffe Morning in America for Republicans Americans have undoubtedly been feeling down on the state of the country throughout the last election cycle, but at least some are feeling more optimistic now that the election is over. In a CivicScience poll the week after the election, 46 percent of respondents said they were optimistic about the future of the country, up from the 38 percent who said the same in the spring of 2023. That change was driven largely by a big swing among Republicans: The week after the election, 63 percent said they felt very or somewhat optimistic, compared to just 32 percent last year. In comparison, optimism increased just 4 points among independents and decreased 12 points among Democrats. Other recent polls on the national mood show even more drastic shifts within each party before and after the election, with Democrats and Republicans practically swapping positions on the same questions. For example, Trump's trademark Make America Great Again slogan fed off the increasingly prevalent idea that America's best days are in its past, but Democratic voters in a post-election YouGov/CBS News poll are now much more likely to agree with that sentiment than Republicans. For their part, Republicans seem confident Trump will make good on his MAGA pledge: In a turnabout from how they felt in October, more than two-thirds now say America's best days are in its future. In other recent polling, the share of registered voters who think things in the U.S. are "generally headed in the right direction" remained relatively low (around 30 percent) in the months before and after the election, but that feeling has risen sharply among Republicans while plummeting among Democrats , most of whom now say the country is "off on the wrong track." These patterns aren't unique to the 2024 election, though. For instance, YouGov/The Economist's regular tracking polls show that there was a huge bump in the share of Republicans who felt good about the country's direction right after Trump's 2016 victory, and an even bigger one after he took office the next January. The same was true for Democrats after Biden's win four years later. Needless to say, it's pretty normal in today's highly polarized times for Americans' outlook for the country to correlate closely with whether their preferred party holds the presidency. But there are ways that Republicans' optimism and Democrats' pessimism this year does stand out. Notably, Democrats are particularly pessimistic about the future of their own party, while Republicans are riding high. A mid-November survey by Pew Research found that Americans who identify with or lean toward the GOP felt better about their party's future than they ever have in the Trump era: A whopping 86 percent said they felt optimistic, compared to only 13 percent who felt pessimistic. In contrast, only 51 percent of Democrats said they felt optimistic about the future of their party, while 49 percent felt pessimistic. That's 10 points lower than the 61 percent who were still optimistic about the party after Trump's first win in 2016, and a drop of more than 30 points compared to 2020. So while Republicans try to put their optimism into action, Democrats look to be in for some soul searching. —Tia YangIShowSpeed reveals plans to fight Jake Paul in 2025
Larry Hogan says dozens of drones flew over Maryland home: ‘Entirely unacceptable’Stocks closed higher on Wall Street ahead of the Christmas holiday, led by gains in Big Tech stocks. The S&P 500 added 1.1% Tuesday. Trading closed early ahead of the holiday. Tech companies including Apple, Amazon and chip company Broadcom helped pull the market higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.3%. American Airlines shook off an early loss and ended mostly higher after the airline briefly grounded flights nationwide due to a technical issue. Treasury yields held steady in the bond market. On Tuesday: The S&P 500 rose 65.97 points, or 1.1%, to 6,040.04. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 390.08 points, or 0.9%, to 43,297.03. The Nasdaq composite rose 266.24 points, or 1.3%, to 20,031.13. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 22.42 points, or 1%, to 2,259.85 For the week: The S&P 500 is up 109.19 points, or 1.8%. The Dow is up 456.77 points, or 1.1%. The Nasdaq is up 458.53 points, or 2.3%. The Russell 2000 is up 17.48 points, or 0.8%. For the year: The S&P 500 is up 1,270.21 points, or 26.3%. The Dow is up 5,607.49 points, or 14.9%. The Nasdaq is up 5,019.77 points, or 33.4%. The Russell 2000 is up 232.78 points, or 11.5%.
Mired in last place in the NHL standings amid a rebuilding process, the Chicago Blackhawks dismissed coach Luke Richardson on Thursday and named Anders Sorensen interim coach. In two-plus seasons with the Blackhawks, the 55-year-old Richardson posted a 57-118-15 record, including an 8-16-2 start to this season, in his first stint as a head coach. Chicago posted 59 points in his first season, then regressed to 52 in 2023-24, despite having No. 1 overall pick and 2024 Calder Trophy winner Connor Bedard on the roster. "Today I made the difficult decision to move on from Luke as our head coach. We thank him for his efforts and contributions to the organization and our community," Chicago general manager Kyle Davidson said in a statement. "As we have begun to take steps forward in our rebuilding process, we felt that the results did not match our expectations for a higher level of execution this season and ultimately came to the decision that a change was necessary. We wish Luke and his family all the best moving forward." The 49-year-old Sorensen had been the coach of the Blackhawks' AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs. He will be succeeded at Rockford by Mark Eaton on an interim basis. Eaton is the Blackhawks' assistant general manager overseeing player development. "On behalf of the entire Blackhawks organization, I'd like to thank Luke for his dedication over the past three seasons," Blackhawks chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz said in a statement. "I fully support Kyle's decision in making this change as he continues to do what is needed to move our team forward. I have the utmost confidence in him and the rest of our Hockey Operations team as they begin their search for the next head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks." Richardson was the Toronto Maple Leafs' first-round pick (No. 7 overall) in 1987 and posted 201 points (35 goals, 166 assists) in 1,417 games over 21 seasons. Playing for six teams, the Ottawa native also amassed 2,055 penalty minutes. --Field Level Media
VICTORIA - British Columbia Premier David Eby says his fellow premiers and the federal government have hatched a game plan to fight U.S. tariffs, with conservative premiers lobbying Republican counterparts, left-leaning provincial leaders courting the Democrats, and Ottawa focusing on president-elect Donald Trump. The premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talked about using their political diversity and connections to thwart the prospect of Trump’s proposed 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, Eby said Thursday in a year-end interview. He said it was discussed that conservative premiers Danielle Smith in Alberta, Doug Ford in Ontario and Nova Scotia’s Tim Houston are well-placed to lobby Republican governors and business leaders. Eby said as a New Democrat he will likely have more in common with Democrat governors and business leaders from the West Coast states. “I can easily have conversations with governors and businesses down the West Coast of the U.S., where we have close relationships and our politics are very similar,” he said. “Premier Smith can have conversations with Republican governors. That would be more challenging for me, and (she) would have more connections potentially with the Trump administration than an NDP administration in B.C. would.” He said a meeting last week between the premiers and Trudeau discussed Canada’s diversity of representation, and how it could bring leverage and advantages in tariff talks. “It’s interesting, there was a lot of talk about what unity means in terms of Canada’s response to the tariffs,” he said. “There’s obviously a diversity of views around the Council of the Federation table of all the premiers. Certainly, mine is not the same as Premier Smith’s or Premier Ford’s or Premier Houston’s, and that diversity of views is actually potentially a significant strength for us as we enter into these discussions.” Eby also said he was prepared to appear on American’s right-leaning Fox News TV network, as did premiers Ford and Smith. “Anything that I can do to support the national effort to protect the families in Canada from the impact of tariffs and also families in the U.S. from those unjustified tariffs,” he said. “Absolutely, if I thought it was helpful.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2024. Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said Tim Houston’s first name was John.
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Kylian Mbappe said he will take full responsibility for a “big mistake” after the striker missed another penalty in champions Real Madrid’s 2-1 defeat at Athletic Bilbao in La Liga on Wednesday. A week after the French superstar failed from the spot in the Champions League against Liverpool, he endured further misery from 12 yards as Los Blancos allowed league leaders Barcelona to retain their four-point advantage. Alejandro Berenguer fired Bilbao ahead early in the second half, with Jude Bellingham levelling for Madrid after Mbappe’s penalty miss. However, substitute Gorka Guruzeta snatched fourth-place Athletic victory in the 80th minute after a Fede Valverde error. The defeat and Mbappe’s penalty miss will heap further pressure on to the former Paris Saint-Germain striker’s shoulders after plenty of criticism in recent weeks. “A big mistake in a match where every detail counts. I take full responsibility for it,” said Mbappe in a post on social media network Instagram. “A difficult moment but it’s the best time to change this situation and show who I am.” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said the forward was downhearted after goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala saved his penalty. “Obviously (Mbappe) is sad, disappointed, but he has to continue,” the Italian said. Mbappe has scored 10 goals in his first 20 games for Madrid across all competitions but is struggling for consistency. “He’s not at his best level but we have to give him time to adapt, he’s scored 10 goals, he can do better and he’s working to do that,” said Ancelotti. Madrid were hoping to build on three consecutive wins in La Liga, despite missing Vinicius Junior and other injured stars, with Ancelotti bringing French midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni back into the starting line-up. Thibaut Courtois made an important early intervention to deny Spain winger Nico Williams, with his brother Inaki Williams lurking dangerously. It was a first half of few clear chances, but one played with intensity in front of a packed San Mames stadium. Mbappe found the net but the goal was ruled out for offside and the referee reviewed a Rodrygo penalty appeal but decided the Brazilian winger went down too easily. At the other end, Berenguer should have put the hosts ahead but blasted high over the bar after Inaki Williams’ clever backheel teed him up. The forward made amends early in the second half by bundling home from close range after Courtois could only palm an Inaki Williams cross into his path. Mbappe had the chance to level for Madrid from the spot when Bilbao goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala barrelled into Antonio Rudiger. After missing his penalty against Liverpool, Mbappe agreed to let Bellingham take one against Getafe on Sunday. However this time the French forward stepped up himself but his weak effort, again to the goalkeeper’s left, was at a comfortable height for Agirrezabala to parry. Mbappe did play a part in Madrid’s equaliser, though, with a vicious drive from distance that the stopper could only push out into the path of Bellingham, who finished tidily for his fourth goal in his last four league games. Madrid were only level for two minutes before Bilbao regained the lead through Guruzeta, who stole the ball as Valverde prepared to pass and fired low past Courtois. Mbappe cut a deflated figure in the final stages, with one attempt to break in down the left quickly shut down by the Bilbao defence to raucous cheers from their jubilant supporters. Related Story Justice ministry licenses new batch of real estate brokers Lesha Bank signs two MoUs with Barwa Real EstateNone(The Center Square) – National Governors Association (NGA) Chair and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, D-Colorado, joined Governors Joe Lombardo, R-Nev., Spencer Cox, R-Utah, and Mark Gordon, R-Wyo., alongside education experts to support an NGA initiative this week, according to a press release from the organization. The initiative is called Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success . It aims to improve public education in the following areas, according to the initiative’s website: early literacy, numeracy, and high-quality curriculum; after-school, summer, and expanded learning; work-based learning and apprenticeships; dual and concurrent enrollment; skills-based learning and non-degree credentials; technology and artificial intelligence in the classroom; educator development and support; and data systems and roles of state agencies. “Launched in July 2024, Let’s Get Ready is a yearlong initiative designed to support the nation’s Governors drive innovative education policies,” the release said. “Let’s Get Ready aims to help Governors form policies that better evaluate outcomes for state investments in education and improve outcomes for learners at all stages of their education journey. The initiative also focuses on the ways states can meet the future needs of the workforce by preparing students for success in and outside of the classroom. Last month, Governor Polis held the first Let’s Get Ready convening in Denver.” On Wednesday, Polis and Lombardo plan to tour Southeast Career Technical Academy where they will “highlight the innovative work the school is leading to empower students with the tools needed to succeed with professional career paths,” the release said. Southeast Career Technical Academy is the first career and technical education high school in Las Vegas. “I started the Let’s Get Ready initiative because I’m committed to advancing the American principle that all students should have access to education that prepares them for success in life,” Polis said in the release. “We know that education is the key to prosperity and success for individuals, our communities, and our economy. That’s why we’re encouraged that Governors from both sides of the aisles are working with our country’s top education experts to find innovative solutions to improve education policies and outcomes. We can ensure all learners have access to quality education by implementing policies that look to the current and future needs of students and our workforce.” Lombardo said the academy meshes well with his educational goals as governor. “Better preparing students for college and career paths is one of my top priorities,” Lombardo said in the release. “Nevada is taking action on a variety of fronts – expanding early childhood education, hiring more teachers, increasing per-pupil funding, supporting innovative charter schools, and increasing accountability to ensure schools deliver results for students. Establishing better education to workforce pathways takes coordination with teachers, students, and business leaders. I appreciate the opportunity to host Governors and education leaders in Nevada to spur a national conversation on education.” The Las Vegas-based event will feature panel discussions with education experts on both sides of the political aisle. Some education experts participating include : David Coleman, CEO of College Board; Dr. Shanika Hope, Education for Social Impact Director at Google; Dr. Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy; and Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, the release said. Additional information about the Let’s Get Ready initiative and upcoming bipartisan events are available on the NGA website .
