Craig Bannister spun in a Jan. 16 CNSNews.com blog post:
On Thursday – the day after Democrats delivered impeachment articles to the Senate – Donald Trump’s Presidential Approval Index rating turned positive for the first time in nine months, Rasmussen Reports’ Daily Presidential Tracking Poll results show.
Trump’s +1 rating in Rasmussen’s Presidential Approval Index reflects 40% of likely U.S. who said they “strongly approve” of the job Pres. Trump is doing and 39% who “strongly disapprove.”
Overall, Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters either “somewhat” or “strongly” approve of President Trump’s job performance, while 47% somewhat or strongly disapprove.
Not since December 5, 2019 – the day House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Democrats would formally proceed with impeachment – have so few voters disapproved of Trump’s performance.
Bannister won’t tell you, however, that Rasmussen Reports is an outlier poll that always skews Republican. According to FiveThirtyEight’s polling aggregate, on the day Bannister’s article was published, Trump’s was at a 42.4% approval and 52.9% disapproval. Further, FiveThirtyEight gives the Rasmussen poll only a C+ rating and found that its mean-reverted bias is 1.5% toward the Republicans.
Also, note Bannister’s phrasing in claiming that “so few voters disapproved of Trump’s performance.” Even taking into mind Rasmussen’s highly skewed polling, that’s still 47 percent — not exactly “few.”