Nearly nine-in-ten of registered voting Americans do not agree with the Biden administration definition of “bipartisan,” according to a poll from Morning Consult.
Voters were asked if they support the Biden administration’s new definition of “bipartisan,” which the administration uses very loosely.
The administration’s new concept of the term “bipartisanship” means they will use the term on anything which has support from voters of both parties, no matter how broad, but lacks the support from congressional Republicans.
The poll found when the respondents were given a choice, only one of every ten actually agreed with the way “something counts as bipartisan when it’s supported by Democratic and Republican voters.” Additionally, 32 percent said something is bipartisan when lawmakers of both parties back it.
This also includes 43 percent who believe that for something to be bipartisan, it needs to have cross-party support from both voters and lawmakers.
While the administration is still only a few months old, the poll acknowledges President Joe Biden and his administration trying to change how the term is defined in the dictionary.
In April, one of the president’s advisors, Anita Dunn, after the administration faced major opposition on its Chinese coronavirus relief package from a unified Republican party, told the Washington Post, “If you looked up ‘bipartisan’ in the dictionary, I think it would say support from Republicans and Democrats. It doesn’t say the Republicans have to be in Congress.”
The Morning Consult poll was conducted between May 18 to 20. It asked 1,994 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.