>> booktv on c-span2 has taught nonfiction books and authors every weekend. saturday at 8:00 p.m., the ge ceo in his book hotseat, what i learned leading a american company. and on afterwards, this neuroscientist discusses how our memories work. interviewed by our special guest. plus racism has a foothold in white evangelical religion from slavery to current day in her book white evangelical racism, the politics of analogy in america. watch the tv this weekend and be

sure to watch in-n-out in the month of may on c-span2. >> running with the story that just came out and a couple other publications as well, by a margin that has not been seen in a decade according to a report that was released on wednesday. joining us to talk about the result of the report is jeffrey jones. good morning. >> good morning and thank you for having me. >> first of all, what prompted you to ask this question? >> this is something that the gallup group has been tracking for a long time. how people vote and how they think about issues, measuring this since 1944, starting in

1991 we began to ask independents in u.s. politics, most everything has two options. giving you a better sense of how elections may turn out or election preferences may go. >> let's talk about what's making the headlines when it comes to what they are talking about this year. can you talk about how that came about not. >> yes, 49% of americans either identify as democrats or leaned democratic, breaking down who we can identify out right in the 19% are independents who lean democratic now 40% with 25% identifying as republicans and so it's the largest we have measured since the fourth

quarter 2012. >> historically how has this gap shifted over the years? >> well, typically, and this is pretty consistent throughout the company is nation, democrats have a slight lead between four to six points over the last four or five years and so we get to double digits or close to double-digit, that is pretty where. so we saw the democratic advantages in 2006 through 2009. that is when george bush was president and also at the beginning of the obama administration, very popular at that point. also certainly we referenced 2012 when obama was reelected and also late 1992 or 1993 after clinton was elected.

>> the numbers tell us one thing, what are the driving was i not enact. >> what we are really seeing is probably less of a shift to the democratic party, so if you compare the first quarter 2021 but the last quarter 2020, the leading has dropped three points where is it has stayed the same and what we are saying is that fewer americans identify as republican, 25% identify out right as republican, that is not the lowest but it's pretty close to it. below is 22% in 2013 by obamacare. >> would youou say to that drop amongst republicans going towards democrats as a result of the trump administration's overall over the time they had ance office? >> i think that it's one reason than that.

definitely in the postelection timeframe, after the approval rating went down, he left office with a 34% approval rating, the lowest of his presidency. and in addition to this going down, american image of the republican partyty is 37% and tt is pretty low and the lowest that we have measured for them. >> the ride up in usa today says a couple other factors as the passing of the relief package and the month of march, pushing for mass vaccinations, all contributing to that. can you expand on that? >> yes, it was very popular in the approval of that is in the high 60s. certainly the coronavirus is a major factor in the election and

we have seen that come down a lot in regards to that. so we have the democratic administration that we can credit for that and a lot of what we referenced before with some of these high points, things are going well and each tend to see, you know, things shifting ins the direction very well. >> let's talk about them as a whole and the impact on it. >> as a whole, 44% identified as those that lean democratic are those that don't lean toward either party. definitely seeing an increase in the past decade, the 44% that we measured in the past quarter, it's very close to 46%, we have

been consistently over 40% for most of the% past decade where s before that more americans moving away from the party and we see that going back to the 1990s, especially the early '90s and most americans were positive and now it's rare that they have this opinion of either party. so this is kind of a hot point for democrat and identification and the favorable opinion is that 48% right now. >> what is the potential of that trend could move upwards as we go forward we met. >> it's really going to probably be tied to howow things go been getting credit or blame foror

that. and a lot of that as the popularity of the presidency in the midterm election. things have certainly shifted in a shorter timeframe and this is kind of how we are right now, but a lot can happen in the lock in lock-in and of determining how this will go. >> you can find more of the work he and his colleagues spoke about, particularly the survey that they put out, including how they are identifying, as always, thank you for your time. >> your unfiltered view of government, created by america's cable television company. today providing this as a viewer public service on c-span2.

>> booktv on c-span2 has top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the former general electric ceo reflecting upon the challenges he faced after 9/11 and during the 2008 financial crisis in his book hotseat, what i learned leading a great american company. sunday on "afterwords", in her book remember, the science of memory and the art of forgetting, this neuroscientist discusses how the memory works and she is interviewed by an author and cohost. sunday at 11:00 p.m. eastern, the religion professor andrea butler argues that racism has a foothold in white evangelical religion in her book. the politics of morality in

america. watch booktv this weekend and be sure to watch in -- in may on c-span2. >> president biden met earlier today with the congressional black caucus, also recommending the positing of the johnson & johnson covid-19 vaccination thing that the country has enough supply without it. >> it's an honor to be here today, and i know it has been a pretty painful week with the losses that we have had, we lost a good friend, mr. hastings, which i knew for a very long time. to