A large majority of Americans believe politics played a role in the Justice Department’s indictment of former President Donald Trump, according to a new CNN poll.
CNN released a survey Tuesday showing 71 percent of Americans think the decision to charge Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents was at least partially motivated by political concerns.
But attributing the indictment to politics isn’t the same thing as disagreeing with it. A majority of adults, 55 percent, think Trump acted illegally in his handling of classified documents, and 61 percent approve of the indictment. Majorities of Democrats, 53 percent, independents, 67 percent, and Republicans, 92 percent, also believe politics played a role in the indictment. (RELATED: Merrick Garland Breaks Silence On Trump Indictment, Says He Can’t Address ‘Particulars’)
Reading the new CNN poll…
71% believe that politics played a role in the Trump indictment, but 55% believe he did something illegal and only 15% believe he did nothing wrong. 57% say he put national security at-risk.
Also, Trump’s favorability is -40 with independents. pic.twitter.com/UL1J9qf2QG
— AG (@AGHamilton29) June 20, 2023
The same poll showed that 47 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters have Trump as their first choice in the party’s primary, and 54 percent say Trump’s conduct does not matter to them as much as a president’s effectiveness.
Only 12 percent of respondents said that other Republican candidates should focus on condemning Trump’s alleged actions, and just 26 percent said Trump should end his campaign because of the charges.
Most Americans disagreed, with 59 percent saying Trump should end his campaign. A similar number, 57 percent, said that Trump’s handling of the documents was a national security risk.
Trump was indicted by the Justice Department on 37 counts related to allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government from retrieving them. The charges were a result of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the classified documents case. President Joe Biden is still under investigation by a DOJ Special Counsel for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
CNN’s poll was conducted by SSRS from June 13-17 following Trump’s arraignment at a Miami, Florida courthouse.
The poll took a random sample of 1,350 drawn from a probability-based panel. 561 of the respondents were Republican or Republican-leaning voters. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.4 percent for the entire sample and 5.2 percent among Republican and Republican-leaning voters.