Jun 20, 2017

Trump's approval rating sinks to lowest point yet

Alayna Treene

Luca Bruno / AP

President Trump's approval rating has sunk to the lowest level since becoming president, according to a CBS News poll. That's largely in part to his handling of the Russia investigation, an issue that gets lower ratings than any other topic, including the economy or terrorism, per the poll.

Why it matters: The latest ranking reveals that the scandals involving Moscow are now dragging down Trump's approval ratings, and has elevated the issue to one that Americans care most about — a big problem for a WH trying to shift the focus back to Trump's policy agenda.

The poll's findings:

Trump's approval rating over

  • June 20: 36%
  • April 26: 41%
  • March 29: 40%
  • February 21: 39%

A majority (56%) of Americans believe Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation will be impartial, while only 30% think it will not be impartial.

The Russia investigations are:

  • A critical issue of national security: 39%
  • A political distraction that should be put aside: 32%
  • Serious, but not as serious as other issues: 27%

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Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in 2012. Photo: John Gress/Corbis via Getty Images

Six people died in a shooting at the Molson Coors Brewing Company in Milwaukee Molson Coors on Wednesday, including the 51-year-old gunman, Mayor Tom Barrett told reporters at an evening press conference with local police.

Details: All of the victims worked at the brewery complex, as did the shooter who died of "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police confirmed in a statement late Wednesday.

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The CDC said Wednesday "astute" U.S. clinicians found the novel coronavirus in a person who did not recently return from a foreign country nor knowingly have contact with anyone infected, as six more countries reported their first cases.

The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,800 people and infected over 82,000 others. The number of new cases reported outside China exceeded those inside the country for the first time on Tuesday, the WHO said Wednesday. South Korea has the most, with 1,595 infections confirmed by Wednesday night. Europe's biggest outbreak is in Italy, where 453 cases have been confirmed.

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Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, special advisor to the director general of the World Health Organization, told MSNBC Wednesday he found "most" of what President Trump said at his briefing on the novel coronavirus "incoherent."

The big picture: As the number of confirmed cases reaches 60 in the U.S., the top health professional — who was a health policy adviser in the Obama administration — is among several leading figures, in particular, Democrats, to criticize the president for his response to the outbreak.

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