How Biden lost the vaccine mandate messaging fight

First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

People wait in line at a walk-up vaccination site in Washington, on Nov. 29, 2021.Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images
SHARE THIS —

WASHINGTON — More than 70 percent of adults in the United States are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. But fewer than half of Americans support a vaccine mandate, according to last month’s NBC News poll.

That math — and disparity — tells you all you need to know about how President Biden is losing his Covid vaccine mandate messaging fight.

Per our poll, 47 percent of Americans say they support requiring that everyone who is eligible must get a Covid-19 vaccine, while 50 percent oppose that requirement.

And here are the results broken down by party, age, race and education:

  • All adults: 47 percent favor, 50 percent oppose.
  • Democrats: 80 percent favor, 18 percent oppose.
  • Independents: 47 percent favor, 51 percent oppose.
  • Republicans: 20 percent favor, 77 percent oppose.
  • 18-34: 45 percent favor, 51 percent oppose.
  • 35-49: 41 percent favor, 56 percent oppose.
  • 50-64: 44 percent favor, 53 percent oppose.
  • 65+: 60 percent favor, 38 percent oppose.
  • Whites: 40 percent favor, 56 percent oppose.
  • Blacks: 64 percent favor, 34 percent oppose.
  • Latinos: 59 percent favor, 39 percent oppose.
  • White non-college grads: 35 percent favor, 61 percent oppose.
  • White college grads: 52 percent favor, 46 percent oppose.
  • Vaccinated: 65 percent favor, 31 percent oppose.
  • Unvaccinated: 6 percent favor, 92 percent oppose.
  • White evangelicals: 19 percent favor, 78 percent oppose.

How did this happen? One side — mandate opponents — dominated the messaging.

The other side — mandate supporters, including the White House — didn’t.

Data Download: The numbers you need to know today

3.5 percent: The share of federal workers who have not yet been vaccinated for Covid, per the American Federation of Government Employees, as the White House delays its vaccine mandate for federal agency employees.

48,462,097: The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States, per the most recent data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 217,593 more since yesterday morning.)

783,794: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far, per the most recent data from NBC News. (That’s 1,954 since yesterday morning.)

459,234,791: The number of total vaccine doses administered in the U.S., per the CDC.

40,247,890: The number of booster vaccine doses administered in the U.S., per the CDC.

59.3 percent: The share of all Americans who are fully vaccinated, per the CDC.

71.1 percent: The share of all Americans 18-years and older who are fully vaccinated, per the CDC.

19 percent: The increase in the cost of a pound of ground beef, per BLS, as inflation has hit family budgets.

Biden heads to Minnesota to sell infrastructure law

President Biden today travels to Rosemount, Minn., for what a White House official is billing as the “start of the nationwide tour that will demonstrate how [he] followed through on his promise to forge bipartisan consensus, help unite the country, and prove our democracy can deliver big wins for the American people,” NBC’s Mike Memoli reports.

Yet Memoli adds that some of the language the official uses to describe the tour closely mirrors what the White House was saying two weeks ago, just after Biden signed the infrastructure bill and traveled to New Hampshire and Michigan to sell the law. The official insisted to Memoli that with Thanksgiving behind us, we’ll now see more sustained travel from the range of administration officials to key states.

Biden speaks in Minnesota at 4:30 p.m. ET.

By the way, both VP Kamala Harris are Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will appear together in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday to promote the infrastructure law.

Tweet of the day

Another Democrat enters N.Y. governor's race

Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., announced on Monday that he is running for governor, making him the latest state Democrat to join the crowded 2022 primary field as well as the 18th House Democrat to announce they will not be running for re-election (either retiring or running for a different office).

The current Democratic gubernatorial field includes incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul (who assumed her position after Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned from office), state AG Letitia James and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, with potentially more to come.

And the widening Democratic field is a reminder of what could happen if President Biden doesn’t run for re-election in 2024.

Elected incumbents have more of an ability to clear a primary field than non-elected incumbents (like Hochul) do.

ICYMI: What else is happening in the world

Voters today will choose Atlanta’s next mayor in a runoff election between City Council President Felicia Moore and City Councilman Andre Dickens.

The new omicron variant is a reminder of how vaccine inequality will make it more difficult to fight the pandemic.

New information about the investigation into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo shines light on the role CNN anchor Chris Cuomo played in helping defend his brother from sexual harassment allegations.

Texas’ power grid remains vulnerable nine months after the brutal storm that savaged the state’s power grid.