CNN anchor Dana Bash reacted sharply Thursday to a Michigan poll showing that 45% of the electorate would not consider voting for a Muslim presidential candidate.
During “Inside Politics,” Bash repeatedly focused on the number before declaring the result “just gross.”
The discussion began with Bash reviewing a new poll from The Washington Post.
According to the figures she presented, El-Sayed stood at 48 while Rogers registered 45, leaving the contest a statistical dead heat when the margin of error was considered.
Bash also highlighted a question about which political party Michigan voters would prefer to control the US Senate.
She read results showing Democratic control at 53 and Republican control at 45 before turning to voter attitudes toward presidential candidates with different religious identities.
Bash said, “There’s a brand new poll out from The Washington Post this morning that shows El-Sayed at 48, Rogers at 45. With the margin of error, it’s a statistical dead heat. And then the question, which kind of goes to the strategy here, perhaps, by some voters who are thinking about the balance of power in Washington: ‘What is your preference for party control in the US Senate? Democratic 53, Republican 45.”
She continued by shifting from party control to the question of which presidential candidates respondents would refuse to consider.
That section of the survey listed atheists, Muslims, Jews, and Christians as separate categories.
Bash continued, “Now let’s get to what you were just talking about, Nia. ‘Would not consider voting for a presidential candidate who is,’ Atheist 46%, Muslim 45%, Jewish 20%, Christian 7%. These are Michigan voters, the people who are going to go to the polls to decide between Rogers and El-Sayed. 45%?”
The largest figure Bash cited was the 46% of respondents who said they would not consider an atheist presidential candidate.
Muslims followed at 45%, while the corresponding numbers were 20% for a Jewish candidate and 7% for a Christian candidate.
Bloomberg columnist Nia Malika-Henderson responded by pointing to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
She said Obama faced voters who were uncomfortable voting for a black man and noted that some people thought he was Muslim.
Malika-Henderson said, “Yeah, I mean, listen, Barack Obama had to deal with this, right? I mean, he had to deal with the reality that some people in 2008 were not comfortable voting for a black man for president, a black man that people thought was Muslim, and all that kind of stuff.”
Her response connected the Michigan poll discussion to the attitudes she said Obama encountered in 2008.
Bash then returned directly to the 45% figure involving a Muslim presidential candidate and offered her own blunt assessment of the respondents’ position.
Bash said, “To have respondents from this poll, 45% say they would not consider voting for a Muslim, first of all, it’s just gross. Let’s just say what it is, it’s just gross.”
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