CNN’s Enten Pushes Back on Jemele Hill’s Claim Trump Is Losing Ground with Republicans Over the Epstein Files

HILL: “This is the downside of the strategy that he has imported that got him elected. His entire strategy with the Epstein files was to try to give people the strong impression that this was Bill Clinton, this was Democrats, this was something that they were trying to hide. And now that this has all turned on him, he won’t be able to convince his base that this is a transparent investigation at all. Like, I don’t know what it would take for them to believe that there’s no cover-up. I mean, you’ve convinced a lot of these people, part of your whole spiel is that the government isn’t to be trusted. And then you’re asking these same group of people to suddenly trust that this was all on the up and up, there is no list, that everything is as it appears, and they’re just not going to buy it. And what’s always interesting to me is, like, what it takes people to get off the Trump train. It’s not the xenophobia, it’s not the racism, it’s not the bigotry. It is this?”
PHILLIP: “But are they off the Trump train? I mean, I think this is the part of what Trump has been saying. I’m not so sure. Because I think that they really don’t want to be off the Trump train. They want to be on the Trump train. They just want Trump to get in line with them on this issue.”
ENTEN: “Yeah, I think that’s exactly right, Abby. Look, I think for Trump, it does feel a little bit like the lady doth protest a little too much, right? But when it comes to his approval rating with Republicans, it’s basically as solid as it ever was. You know, you put it up on the graphic before where you saw the smallest decline was among Republicans. If you look at the average of polls, his approval rating with Republicans still at about 90 percent. Of course, those same Republicans say they are dissatisfied with the amount of information that’s been released so far. Everyone is dissatisfied with the amount of information that’s been released so far with concern to the Epstein files. Everyone thinks that there’s something more going on there. But then making that leap to all of a sudden that his base is moving away from him, at least at this particular point in the polling data, we’re not seeing it.”