The latest CNN/ORC poll shows that a mere 16 percent of adults strongly support President Barack Obama’s plan to bring thousands of Syrian refugees into the United States, while 43 percent of Americans are strongly opposed.
Among the crucial bloc of swing-voting moderates, 14 percent strongly favor admitting more refugees, while 39 percent strongly oppose admitting more refugees.
Those splits suggest the issue is a winner for the GOP, even though the GOP’s leaders are still reluctant to press their advantage on the migrant issue.
Overall, 44 percent support and 55 percent oppose accepting more refugees.
Shortly after the poll was released, Donald Trump announced opposition to further Muslim migration.
The poll showed that the public opposes Obama’s handling of the Islamic State by 64 percent to 33 percent, and that 53 percent support sending ground troops into the Iraq-Syria region to fight ISIS.
Sixty-one percent of 1,020 adults — not likely voters — expected another terrorist attack on U.S. soil in the near future, and 81 percent thought ISIS had the capability to launch one, the poll showed, just days before the San Bernardino jihad attack.
CNN notes there is an extremely sharp partisan split on these poll questions, with Democrats actually rallying around Obama and giving him considerably higher scores on national security versus last month – 57 percent approval now, 43 percent in October. Among moderates, Obama’s ISIS policy was opposed 65 percent to 32 percent
Paradoxically, 52 percent of Democrats nevertheless agreed that America’s military response to the Islamic State hasn’t been aggressive enough.
Sixty percent of Americans overall said the war against ISIS was going badly, with just 38 percent who said it was going well. Those numbers have slipped steadily every time CNN took a poll over the past years.
Democrats were also much more supportive of Syrian refugees, and much less willing to deploy ground forces against ISIS. Sixty-two percent of Democrats felt the United States should not take a lead role in solving international problems, while 54 percent of Republicans thought it should.