President Donald Trump’s introduction of the gold medal-winning USA men’s Olympic hockey team during the State of the Union address on Tuesday night was met with largely positive bipartisan reactions among voters.
Lee Carter, of the polling group maslansky+partners, said Independent voters especially loved the moment when the players entered the House Chamber wearing their gold medals and USA sweatshirts, and were met with thunderous “U-S-A” chants.
“The USA hockey team and military recognition moments were widely noticed,” Carter said. “Visual, patriotic moments landed more consistently than policy-heavy segments.”
According to the polling group, visual dials showed Independent voter reaction had the largest spike during the moment. Dials showed reaction from Republican voters, who were already energized by the speech, also increased, while reaction from Democrat voters, who were overall the least enthused during Trump’s speech, also saw a slight bump.
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The polling group said some of the positive reactions from voters who took part in the polling included, “What a great moment!” and, “Love it!” Even some critics acknowledged, “They deserve recognition,” and, “It’s a nice moment.”
Trump had invited the team to the State of the Union address Sunday night as they celebrated their 2-1 win over Canada in the finals of the Winter Olympics.
Trump introduced the team during the address to resounding applause from those in attendance.
“Here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud. The men’s gold medal Olympic hockey team,” Trump said. “Come on in!”
“They beat a fantastic Canadian team in overtime as everybody saw, as did the American women who will soon be coming to the White House,” the president said.
Trump added that he would honor goaltender Connor Hellebuyck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The polling group said 29 Democrat voters, 41 Republican voters and 30 Independent voters were involved in the voter dials.
