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Poll: Abortion rights draws support as most call current law “too strict” — but economy, inflation top factors for Floridians
Florida is drawing plenty of attention for its abortion battles, and it’s showing widespread support for abortion access in the state, though that does not translate into making it a presidential battleground.
That’s because voters here rate Florida’s economy as mixed and the national economy as bad, with inflation and immigration having more impact on the contest right now.
Florida’s voters tend to think they’ll be better off financially with Donald Trump, who leads comfortably in his bid to carry the state for a third straight time.
Abortion impact
There is a lot of support in Florida for abortion access, including the majority view that the current six-week ban is too strict. Women are even more likely than men to say so.
Most Florida voters would want abortion to be legal in most cases, and overwhelmingly in at least some cases.
But in the presidential race, that doesn’t all accrue to President Biden’s benefit — or entirely hurt his opponent, former President Trump.
Here’s why: First, while it is important, abortion isn’t seen nearly as important as the economy and inflation for likely voters. In fact it trails a host of other issues.
(That’s partly because it’s partisan: Democrats care a lot more than Republicans.)
Second, Trump has distanced himself a bit on the issue, with a lot of voters neither blaming nor crediting him for Roe’s overturn. While there’s relatively more blame than credit, coming especially from Democrats, it’s less for independents, and less across the wider electorate.
Then relatively few think Trump would try to pass a national ban going forward.
So even for those who want abortion to be legal, there’s no consensus on what the implications of a Trump vote would be in that regard.
Mr. Biden, for his part, is seen as trying to make it legal everywhere.
Third, there are plenty of Republicans and Trump voters who think, as most Democrats do, that abortion should be allowed at least in some circumstances. In fact, very few want it illegal in all cases. This has long been true nationwide.
Fourth, regarding turnout, infrequent voters aren’t any more likely than more regular voters to say the abortion issue motivates them to turn out.
There is majority support for establishing a constitutional right to abortion in Florida. Although as is often the case with referenda and amendments, there’s a lot of expressed uncertainty regarding Amendment 4 and many people who say they have not heard or read about it yet.
At the moment, Democrats are more likely than Republicans and independents to report having heard about Amendment 4.
Voters, and women in particular, do have concerns that extend into all reproductive health care if the amendment does not pass. Most voters think that access to care will get harder, and women are especially apt to think so.
Do the candidates have the mental and cognitive health to serve?
As we’ve seen nationally, Trump is seen as having the cognitive health to serve as president, more so than Biden.
Florida has a lot of older voters, who are more likely to feel only Trump has the ability to serve –
But it’s young people who stand out here: they’re the most likely age group to think neither of them can serve.
The marijuana measure
Speaking of young people, they’re backing an amendment that would legalize marijuana, but it’s finding plenty of favor across all age groups under 65.
Key groups
Mr. Biden is faring worse with key parts of the Democratic coalition than in 2020, which partly explains why he’s further back today than he was four years ago.
One notable group is Hispanic voters — and the economy explains a lot of that.
Most of Florida’s Hispanic voters think they’d be worse off financially if Mr. Biden wins.
DeSantis and other issues
After winning reelection easily two years ago, Florida’s voters are more split on Gov. Ron DeSantis today, as he just edges into positive territory for approval among voters (he’s slightly under among Floridians overall.)
But either way, he does get very strong backing from the state’s Republicans, despite having run against their preferred presidential candidate.
What also divides Floridians is perceptions of his efforts against things he considered “woke,” many of which drew national attention in advance of his presidential campaign. That’s split between those who think it made Florida better, or worse, and it’s predictably partisan.
Another one of the state’s Republicans, incumbent Senator Rick Scott, is comfortably ahead in a potential November Senate matchup.
This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted between May 10-16, 2024 with a representative sample of 1,576 adults living in Florida. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as past vote.The margin of error is +/- 3.1 points for the total sample and +/- 3.9 points for the sample of registered voters.
Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
