Democrats, Trump blamed equally for U.S. gov't shutdown: poll

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Voters blamed congressional Democrats and U.S. President Donald Trump equally for the three-day government shutdown that ended late Monday, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Thirty-two percent of voters blamed Democrats for the shutdown, while 31 percent pointed the finger at the president, the Quinnipiac University survey found. Only 18 percent faulted GOP lawmakers.

Eighty-four percent deemed the shutdown "mainly unnecessary" while only 13 percent called it as "mainly necessary," the survey showed.

Three-quarters of respondents said they favor allowing so-called Dreamers, the undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, to remain in the country legally, while 18 percent said they don't support the plan.

Among voters who support making permanent the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, 53 percent said that the shutdown was not worth it, while 43 percent said it was worth it.

The U.S. government reopened Monday night after Trump signed a weeks-long stopgap spending bill that Congress passed earlier in the day.

The impasse between Democrats and Republicans broke after Senate Majority Mitch McConnell and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer reached a deal over immigration.

McConnell assured that the Senate will take up an immigration bill next month to consider protections for Dreamers.

Democrats had tried to tie the issue of DACA to government spending, and as a result, Senate Democrats had blocked the GOP-sponsored short-term funding bill late Friday night, leading to the shutdown starting early Saturday.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,245 voters nationwide January 19-23 via live interviews, landlines and cell phones, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points, including the design effect.

The results also mirrored those of a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll conducted over the weekend in which Democrats garnered 35 percent of the blame for the shutdown while Trump and Republicans registered 34 percent and 15 percent of the blame respectively. Enditem