Only 35% of Americans believe former President Donald Trump acted illegally in regard to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against him, which began on Monday, a Tuesday poll found.
Jury selection is underway in the first of Trump’s four criminal cases, where he faces 34 felony counts over allegations related to falsifying business records when reimbursing a hush money payment to former porn star actress Stormy Daniels leading up to the 2016 election. As Trump sits in the courtroom this week, 31% believe Trump’s alleged actions were “unethical, but not illegal,” 14% argue he did “nothing wrong” and 19% said they “don’t know enough to say,” according to an AP/NORC poll.
Additionally, only 31% of Americans are “extremely” or “very confident” that the prosecution in New York is treating the former president fairly, the poll found. Roughly 20% are “extremely” or “very confident” that jurors, judges or the Supreme Court, respectively, can be “fair and impartial” in the cases against Trump. (RELATED: Trump’s New York Trial Has Officially Begun. Here’s What’s At Stake)
On the first day of the selection process, more than 50 potential jurors were let go for not being able to be impartial, according to pool reports.
“Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats’ entire strategy to defeat President Trump is to confine him to a courtroom and unconstitutionally silence him throughout this sham Biden Trial,” Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “Crooked Joe Biden is a failed president running a losing campaign.”
“Polling shows the American people see right through the Stalinist tactics employed by Crooked Joe and his allies. President Trump and his team will continue fighting for truth in the courtroom, while working to earn votes on the campaign trail,” Leavitt added.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 15: Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs after the first day of jury selection at Manhattan Criminal Court. (Jeenah Moon-Pool/Getty Images)
“It’s very obvious political persecution,” 46-year-old Christopher Ruff, an independent from Sanford, North Carolina, told The Associated Press. “I’m no fan of Trump in any way, shape or form. Didn’t vote for him, never will. But it’s obviously all political.”
However, 50% of Americans would consider Trump not fit for office if found guilty in the New York case, as well as roughly half in each of the other cases against him, according to the poll.
Trump continues to narrowly lead President Joe Biden in the RealClearPolitics (RCP) average for a 2024 rematch. The only battleground state that Biden is currently advantaged in the RCP average for is Pennsylvania by just 0.1 point.
The AP/NORC poll surveyed 1,204 American adults nationwide from April 4 to April 8 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9%.
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