Uncommon Knowledge
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Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in the crucial battleground state of Michigan, according to recent polling.
Trump was riding high as he arrived in Grand Rapids on Saturday for his first campaign rally since narrowly surviving an assassination attempt the week before. A gunman opened fire on the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, leaving Trump with a bloodied ear, killing one of Trump’s supporters and injuring two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service agents.
In the days since, Trump formally accepted the GOP nomination, celebrated a legal victory and saw a boost in some national and swing state polls. It comes as Biden is continuing to face pressure to drop out of the presidential race after a disastrous debate performance in late June raised fresh concerns about the 81-year-old’s age and ability to beat the Republican in November.
Biden, who is isolating as he battles a COVID-19 infection, has repeatedly insisted he will remain in the race.
Trump addressed those calls during Saturday’s rally, polling the crowd on whether they would prefer his opponent in November to be Biden or his heir apparent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump first mentioned Harris, mispronouncing her name, which elicited boos from the crowd.
When he named “crooked Joe Biden,” the crowd’s booing intensified significantly. Trump also mentioned Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor of Michigan, who also received boos, but not as loudly as those for Biden.
Michigan is one of several swing states that could determine the outcome of November’s election. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016, but Biden won in 2020 by just 154,000 votes. There have been concerns about his ability to win Michigan—which has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation—in November after more than 100,000 Michigan voters cast ballots for “uncommitted” in the state’s Democratic primary in February as a protest against Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
FiveThirtyEight’s average of polls shows that Trump is leading Biden by 2.2 percentage points (43.6 percent to 41.4 percent) in Michigan as of Sunday.
Polls conducted since the assassination attempt have all had Trump leading.
A Civiqs survey of 532 registered Michigan voters conducted between July 13 and 16 had Biden trailing Trump by 3 percentage points, 46 percent to 43 percent. The same survey found that Trump and Harris were tied, with 46 percent support each. The survey has a margin of error of 5.3 percent.
An Emerson College poll, which surveyed 1,000 registered voters between July 15 and 16, also found Trump leading by 3 percentage points in a two-way matchup, with 46 percent supporting Trump, and 42 percent backing Biden. Trump maintained the same lead when third-party candidates were added. The poll has a margin of error of 2.1 percent.
Biden visited Michigan last week, where he touted his administration’s achievements and sought to hammer home the high stakes of November’s election.
“Another four years of Donald Trump is deadly serious,” he said during a rally in Detroit on July 12. “America needs to wake up and realize that Trump and his MAGA Republicans—what they’re trying to do. We’re going to join them, we’re going to engage them and we’re going to stop them.”
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Donald Trump blasted Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This rally was the former president’s first rally after he survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last week.
Attacking his rivals Biden and Harris, Trump said, according to The Mirror, “If you vote for Biden, you are voting for Harris as well.”
“They’re after me, they’re not after you but I’ll always stand in the way,” Trump said while casting the indictments against him as a witch hunt. Speaking about Biden, Trump said “he’s a stupid, stupid person” who claims “weaponized justice against me.”
Trump described how well he gets along with Chinese president Xi Jinping, a “brilliant” man who “controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.” Trump said Jinping “makes guys like Biden look like babies.”
At the same rally, Trump said he took a bullet for “democracy” and vowed to “fight, fight fight” after the Pennsylvania rally shooting. “I’m saying, ‘What the hell did I do for democracy? Last week, I took a bullet for democracy,” he said.
Trump was accompanied by his running mate JD Vance, who hailed the former president at the rally. “I find it hard to believe that a week ago, an assassin tried to take Donald Trump’s life, and now we have got a hell of a crowd in Michigan to welcome him back on the campaign trail,” Vance said before Trump arrived.
After being introduced, Trump said he was “thrilled to be back in the great state of Michigan.” “I stand before you only by the grace of almighty God. I shouldn’t be here. Maybe JD or someone else should be here. Something very special happened. Something happened,” he said.
Trump was wounded in the assassination attempt, as were two other people. One person died in the shooting, and the suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by Secret Service snipers.
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This might be the least surprising news ever for Michigan football fans, but a survey recently revealed that the Ohio State fan base is considered to be one of the most annoying in all of college football. In fact, the Buckeye faithful came in at No. 2 on the list – second only to the Alabama fan base.
Of the more than 2,000 people across the country who were surveyed, 22 percent voted Alabama fans as the most annoying fan base in all of college football. Ohio State fans came in at No. 2, with 14 percent of voters indicating that Buckeye fans are the most annoying. Unfortunately for Michigan fans, the Maize and Blue fan base came in at No. 3 on the list with 9 percent of the votes.
Here’s a look at some of the most annoying fan bases according to the survey by Sports Handle:
1. Alabama – 22 percent
2. Ohio State – 14 percent
3. Michigan – 9 percent
4. Notre Dame – 8 percent
5. Texas – 7 percent
6. Florida/Miami (FL) – 5 percent
7. Florida State/USC/Penn State – 4 percent
8. Clemson/Georgia – 3 percent
9. Oklahoma/Auburn/Colorado – 2 percent
Of course, rivalries play a huge factor in determining how people vote in these surveys. For instance, Sports Handle indicated that the majority of Michigan fans voted Ohio State fans as the most annoying, while a good portion of Ohio State fans who participated pointed the finger right back at Michigan fans.
“Unsurprisingly, regional rivalries heavily influence these perceptions. Michigan fans overwhelmingly believe Ohio State has the most annoying fanbase, with 52% expressing this view. Conversely, Ohio fans consider Michigan supporters the most annoying, with 42% of them holding this opinion.
“On the other end of the spectrum, Auburn fans are seen as the least annoying (tied for the least annoying alongside Oklahoma and Colorado), with only 2% of respondents labeling them as such. However, this isn’t the case in Alabama, where 20% of fans find Auburn’s fan base the most annoying, showcasing the intense local rivalry.”
Not only do rivalries seem to play a factor in voting, but it would also appear that success plays a major role as well. Alabama has been one of the most dominant programs in all of college football over the last decade, while teams like Michigan and Ohio State have also claimed National Championships during the College Football Playoff era. Notre Dame hasn’t really won at a high level on the football field as of late, but that hasn’t stopped their fans from being elite at annoying the rest of us.
The bottom line is that science has finally proven what most of us already know to be true: Ohio State has one of the most annoying fan bases in all of college football.
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