Thread: Bloomberg Poll: Most Americans Oppose Syrian Refugee Resettlement

Bloomberg Poll: Most Americans Oppose Syrian Refugee Resettlement

Americans agree with Republican presidential candidates on refugees, but are divided on whether to send U.S. troops to Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State, according to the poll.

Margaret Talev margarettalev



November 18, 2015 — 2:23 PM EST
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Photographer: ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images




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Most Americans want the U.S. to stop letting in Syrian refugees amid fears of terrorist infiltrations after the Paris attacks, siding with Republican presidential candidates, governors, and lawmakers who want to freeze the Obama administration’s resettlement program.
The findings are part of a Bloomberg Politics national poll released Wednesday that also shows the nation divided on whether to send U.S. troops to Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State, an idea President Barack Obama opposes, and whether the U.S. government is doing enough to protect the homeland from a comparable attack.
Fifty-three percent of U.S. adults in the survey, conducted in the days immediately following the attacks, say the nation should not continue a program to resettle up to 10,000 Syrian refugees. Just 28 percent would keep the program with the screening process as it now exists, while 11 percent said they would favor a limited program to accept only Syrian Christians while excluding Muslims, a proposal Obama has dismissed as “shameful” and un-American.

Read the questions and methodology here.

More broadly, terrorism and the Islamic State group surged to the top of Americans’ concerns immediately following the deadly attacks, even as Republicans and Democrats remain divided over how best to address threats. The percentage of those rating terrorism or the Islamic State as top concerns has nearly doubled since the poll last was taken in September. At the same time, those who think the U.S. is on the right track fell to 23 percent, the lowest rating in more than three years. Obama’s disapproval rating rose to 51 percent, up 4 percentage points since September.
These trends may offer momentum to the Republican leaders of Congress as they begin hearings and consider threatening a government shutdown over Obama’s Syria policies, even as 64 percent of Americans say Islam is an inherently peaceful religion.

Terror in general, and specifically ISIS, the group that claimed responsibility for last week’s attacks, are cited by a combined 35 percent of Americans as the top issue in the survey conducted Nov. 15-17. That’s about the same as concerns about jobs, immigration, health care and the federal deficit combined. ISIS alone is the top issue for 21 percent of Americans, up from 11 percent in September. Terrorism is the top issue for 14 percent, up from 7 percent two months ago.
Despite ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Russia, 53 percent of Americans favor a U.S.-Russia military coalition to fight Islamic terrorism.
That finding is a reflection of the “any-friend-in-a-storm” psychology, said J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the poll. “Vladmir Putin is not a popular personality in this country,” she said of the Russian leader. “However, we're facing a common threat. Here's an opportunity to align. both Republicans and Democrats seem to say, 'Let's go.'”
There is no consensus about whether to send U.S. troops to Iraq and Syria to fight ISIS, with 44 percent for the idea and 45 percent against it, or whether the U.S. has done enough to protect the homeland from a Paris-style attack.
Differences break sharply along partisan lines; 64 percent of Republicans support sending U.S. troops, and 59 percent of Democrats oppose the idea, while Democrats are nearly twice as confident as Republicans that the U.S. is doing enough to protect Americans at home. On the refugee question, only 12 percent of Republicans want to keep the current program compared with 46 percent of Democrats.
While majorities in both parties agree that Islam is inherently a peaceful religion, evangelicals are split, with 46 saying Islam is inherently violent. On the other side, 45 percent of evangelicals call Islam an inherently peaceful religion with some adherents who twist its teachings to justify violence.
The national poll of 1,002 adults was conducted Nov. 15-17 for Bloomberg Politics by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, Iowa. It includes a smaller sample of 628 adults who were asked questions about the Paris attacks on Nov. 16 and 17. The overall sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The smaller sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

Correct me if I'm wrong but to these old eyes it looks as if the males/male children are wearing life vests but the woman & girl? Just about sums up their attitude to females.

Originally Posted by scottiemum

Correct me if I'm wrong but to these old eyes it looks as if the males/male children are wearing life vests but the woman & girl? Just about sums up their attitude to females.

Very sharp eye and very correct Scottie!

W

This news article included in today's email alert from ALIPAC

http://www.alipac.us/f8/muslim-refug...s-plan-325576/

ABC Omits Polls Showing Majority of Americans Oppose Obama on Syrian Refugees

Following the Wednesday morning newscasts in which ABC, CBS, and NBC praised the “outraged” President Obama for “slamming” Republican wanting to restrict Syrian refugees in light of the Paris terror

attacks, the “big three” were back on the case Wednesday night in spinning for the President.

However, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News did make time to include in their reporting that numerous polls now show that a majority of Americans stand firmly against the President and side

with Republicans in wanting to put a moratorium on refugees for the time being.

Of course, that leaves ABC’s World News Tonight in ignoring this angle as it continued to boost the President.

NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt turned to the debate over the refugees by revealing a key result from the latest online poll NBC News conducted with the survey site SurveyMonkey:

Now to the growing war of words over allowing Syrian refugees safe haven in the U.S. amid new concerns terrorists could sneak in among them, pretending to be refugees themselves.

A new NBC News/Surveymonkey online poll finds 56 percent Americans disapprove of allowing more refugees into the country, while 41 percent approve and the issue divides sharply across party lines[.]

Despite the polling data, correspondent Hallie Jackson declared right off the top of her segment that the President “mock[ed] Republicans” while in the Philippines and “aim[ed] a withering attack at those

who want to close U.S. borders to Syrian refugees.”

Jackson added between Obama soundbites that the President named “[n]o names” but it was not a surprise to anyone who he was referring to in “[s]ome Republican candidates proposing to keep out Syrian

Muslims will — but letting in Christian refugees” with “[t]he President accusing them of rhetoric that plays into terrorists’ hands.”

In a bizarre twist, she took a few moments to attack Ben Carson following a New York Times piece concerning his need to brush up on foreign policy.

Jackson hyped that Carson is “now on a media blitz to try to prove his foreign policy chops after a New York Times report suggests Carson's own advisers think he’s struggling...and while that is fine

with supporters who like his political inexperience, others see warning signs.”

On CBS, foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan presented the President’s case (that runs counter to the American people) before turning over to chief White House correspondent Major Garrett, who

focused on how Republicans responding to President as well as the polling that’s in their favor: “A new [Bloomberg] poll shows more than half Americans want the U.S. to stop admitting Syrian refugees.

It’s a sentiment echoed by most of the Republican presidential field, including Marco Rubio and John Kasich.”

In contrast to even footnoting the polls, ABC’s World News Tonight chided Republicans for their “refugee rejection” with anchor David Muir fretting that “[a]t least 31 governors saying refugees are not

welcome in their states, more than half the country now.”

Despite CBS and NBC mentioning the polls, they were joined by ABC in failing to highlight how the President is arguably a hypocrite on whether or not Syrian refugees should be admitted.

As Sean Davis of The Federalist keenly observed, this same President who’s accused Republicans of having rhetoric that serves as “potent recruitment tool for ISIL” actually halted the flow of “Iraq refugee

requests for six months” in 2011 “after the Federal Bureau of Investigation uncovered evidence that several dozen terrorists from Iraq had infiltrated the United States via the refugee program.”

The transcript of the segment from ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on November 18 can be found below.

See more at: ABC Omits Polls Showing Majority of Americans Oppose Obama on Syrian Refugees

NO more refugees. No more immigrants. Period. Stop it all. Start deporting illegal aliens. And only fools would think ISIS isn't already all over the United States.