The specter of President Joe Biden's $1.2 infrastructure bill passing the Senate was quickly overtaken by negative news for Democrats, according to the latest Morning Consult Poll.
Voters were 15 points more likely to have heard "a lot" about New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo's resignation amid sexual misconduct allegations than they were to have heard "a lot" about the Senate passing the infrastructure package.
A near majority of voters (49%) heard a lot about Cuomo's ouster, while just 34% heard a lot about the passing of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passing.
The poll was taken over the weekend even before the Taliban fully took control of Afghanistan, but still 36% of voters heard a lot about the Taliban's advances before Monday's shocking videos of fearful Afghans clinging to evacuation planes before plunging to their death.
Republicans were more likely to have heard a lot about the Taliban takeover (around 40%) than Democrats (34%).
Notably, Democrats' $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package was even less widely seen by voters, as just 27% saw a lot of reports on it.
Cuomo's resignation comes after New York Democrat Attorney General Letitia James issued a blistering report from the allegations of 11 women who Cuomo had either harassed in a "hostile and toxic work environment" or engaged in unwanted sexual contact.
The most widely reported news in the past year, according to the 240 news items polled by Morning Consult, was the 64% who had heard a lot about Biden's signing of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in March. That included 47% who had heard a lot about the House passage of the stimulus package, trumping the Senate infrastructure news but not as widely reported as Cuomo's ouster.
The Morning Consult polled 1,999 voters Aug. 13-16. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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