Despite report findings, almost half of Americans think Trump colluded with Russia: Reuters/Ipsos poll

[webfact]

Despite report findings, almost half of Americans think Trump colluded with Russia: Reuters/Ipsos poll

By Chris Kahn

 

U.S. President Donald Trump listens to questions from reporters as the president arrives for a closed Senate Republican policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nearly half of all Americans still believe President Donald Trump worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after Special Counsel Robert Mueller cleared Trump of that allegation.

 

Americans did feel slightly more positive about Trump after learning the findings of the 22-month investigation into Russian meddling in the election, the national opinion poll released on Tuesday showed.

 

But U.S. Attorney General William Barr's four-page summary of Mueller’s investigation did little to change public opinion about the president’s alleged ties to Russia or quench the public’s appetite to learn more.

 

According to Barr's summary released on Sunday, Mueller found no evidence that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia in the 2016 election, but did not exonerate the president on the question of obstructing the investigation.

 

When asked specifically about accusations of collusion and obstruction of justice, 48 percent of poll respondents said they believed “Trump or someone from his campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election,” down 6 percentage points from last week.

 

Fifty-three percent said “Trump tried to stop investigations into Russian influence on his administration,” down 2 points from last week.

 

Public opinion was split sharply along party lines, with Democrats much more likely than Republicans to believe that Trump colluded with Russia and obstructed justice.

 

The Reuters/Ipsos poll measured the public reaction in the United States on Monday and Tuesday, after the report summary was released, gathering online responses from 1,003 adults, including 948 who said they had at least heard of the summary findings.

 

The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of its precision, of about 4 percentage points.

 

Trump's approval rating got a slight boost, with 43 percent of Americans saying they approved of his performance in office, the highest he has polled so far this year and an increase of 4 percentage points compared to a similar poll last week.

 

Since January, the proportion of adults who approved of Trump has ranged between 37 percent and 43 percent.

 

Trump heralded the summary of the Mueller report as a “complete and total exoneration” and vowed to strike back with investigations of his own against unnamed political enemies who he believes are guilty of “evil” and “treasonous things.”

 

Democrats have called on Barr to release the full report, a position shared by a majority of poll respondents.

 

Among those familiar with Barr's summary, only 9 percent said it had changed their thinking about Trump’s ties to Russia and 57 percent said they want to see the entire report.

 

Thirty-eight percent of all adults, including two out of three Democrats, support efforts by Democratic leaders to continue the Russia investigation in Congress, according to the poll.

 

The poll also found that 39 percent felt that Trump “should be impeached,” while 49 percent felt that he should not.

 

Click here to see the entire Reuters/Ipsos poll: https://tmsnrt.rs/2CzWPJl 

 

(Reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Leslie Adler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-03-27

[Samui Bodoh]

"...Despite report findings, almost half of Americans think Trump colluded with Russia: Reuters/Ipsos poll..."

 

I do not find this poll result surprising; unfortunately, a simple statement by Barr is not and will never be enough to convince many/most people; there is too much cynicism, to much information already released which must be accounted for (and hasn't been), and too much partisanship.

 

There must be public hearings with Mueller testifying; nothing else will satisfy.

 

Period.

 

And, there remain questions regarding the issue of Obstruction of Justice; the case against having charges for that is... inexplicable to me. 

 

Again, there must be public hearings with Mueller testifying; nothing else will satisfy.

 

Period.

 

The whole reason that there is a Special Counsel Law in general and having Mueller personally in that position specifically is to remove the politics from the questions. By not having Mueller testify/answer directly, the questions remain.

 

And, they will continue to remain until he does...

 

[ShortTimed]

 

 That almost 50% also reported they would have had complete trust in the investigation as long as it had found Trump guilty.

 

 Investigations appear to serve no greater purpose than to provide confirmational bias to our prejudices.

 

[YetAnother]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

their thinking about Trump’s ties to Russia

trump's ties to Russia are well documented and go way back; they even bailed him out financially when he was desperate

[Guitarzan]

6 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

trump's ties to Russia are well documented and go way back; they even bailed him out financially when he was desperate

 

Why didn't Mueller know that?  LOL!  

Let reserve judgement until we hear from Robert De Niro, Alex Baldwin, and Barbara Streisand. 

[quandow]

1 hour ago, ShortTimed said:

Investigations appear to serve no greater purpose than to provide confirmational bias to our prejudices.

 

Don't forget - they also keep us distracted from the REAL atrocities being committed on either side of the aisle.

[DoctorG]

CNN just did a poll asking what were the main things that will affect your 2020 voting. Immigration came out top at 20% and the Russian issue came out at 0%.

So, just like in 2016, it is best to place little validity on poll results.

[55Jay]

Message, message, message, run a poll to gauge effectiveness.   Keep doing that until the needle moves the way you want it to.  Publishing those kinds of favorable poll results also helps influence people toward the illusion of an emerging consensus.  That's been the game for 2 years.  Marketing and media/PR types have it down to a science. 

 

The needle is already sliding back the other direction though.  Unfortunately, Trump doesn't do himself any favors and is his own worst enemy.  Agreed, there might be some traction on the obstruction angle.  We'll see.

[ShortTimed]

Message, message, message, run a poll to gauge effectiveness.   Keep doing that until the needle moves the way you want it to.  Publishing those kinds of favorable poll results also helps influence people toward the illusion of an emerging consensus.  That's been the game for 2 years.  Marketing and media/PR types have it down to a science. 
 
The needle is already sliding back the other direction though.  Unfortunately, Trump doesn't do himself any favors and is his own worst enemy.  Agreed, there might be some traction on the obstruction angle.  We'll see.

And all this only started 2 years ago?

I am not familiar with your posts but I am going to go out on a limb that you are a Trump-hater.

[KMartinHandyman]

"...Despite report findings, almost half of Americans think Trump colluded with Russia: Reuters/Ipsos poll..."
 
I do not find this poll result surprising; unfortunately, a simple statement by Barr is not and will never be enough to convince many/most people; there is too much cynicism, to much information already released which must be accounted for (and hasn't been), and too much partisanship.
 
There must be public hearings with Mueller testifying; nothing else will satisfy.
 
Period.
 
And, there remain questions regarding the issue of Obstruction of Justice; the case against having charges for that is... inexplicable to me. 
 
Again, there must be public hearings with Mueller testifying; nothing else will satisfy.
 
Period.
 
The whole reason that there is a Special Counsel Law in general and having Mueller personally in that position specifically is to remove the politics from the questions. By not having Mueller testify/answer directly, the questions remain.
 
And, they will continue to remain until he does...
 

And the special counsel regulations state the report is the domain of the executive branch and the attorney general disseminates what he sees fit.

Get over it

Period,,

Exclamation Point

[Emdog]

Barr's summary had 65 words from Mueller report, so please don't refer to it as "Mueller's report".

 There can be lies of omission: like bar girlfriend swearing "I didn't sleep with him", which may be true as far as it goes. What you don't hear is "I had sex with him then went home to sleep".

I recall Nixon and his WH publishing their tapes transcripts, hoping that would satisfy Congress and people. Left out the important bits, the "smoking gun".

Unless we see the entire report, I am going to be a skeptic regarding summary.

[Curt1591]

1 hour ago, YetAnother said:

trump's ties to Russia are well documented and go way back; they even bailed him out financially when he was desperate

Damn! Mueller should have had you testify! 

[55Jay]

16 minutes ago, ShortTimed said:

And all this only started 2 years ago?

I am not familiar with your posts but I am going to go out on a limb that you are a Trump-hater.

No, can't tie a ribbon on it that easily.  I do my best to avoid blind allegiance to flags, media outlets, politicians or a particular brand of laundry detergent. 

 

There's no escaping the objective fact that Trump makes an embarrassing spectacle of himself, but that has nothing to do with the question of collusion. 

[Puchaiyank]

Minds of Americans made up long before report released.

[Curt1591]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Thirty-eight percent of all adults, including two out of three Democrats, support efforts by Democratic leaders to continue the Russia investigation in Congress, according to the poll.

I think those politicians had better be careful of what they wish.

[ShortTimed]

No, can't tie a ribbon on it that easily.  I do my best to avoid blind allegiance to flags, media outlets, politicians or a particular brand of laundry detergent. 

 

There's no escaping the objective fact that Trump makes an embarrassing spectacle of himself, but that has nothing to do with the question of collusion. 

 

I am with you on all of the above...except the laundry detergent.

 

Attack 3D is obviously better based on the name and packaging.

[Kieran00001]

2 hours ago, ShortTimed said:

 

 That almost 50% also reported they would have had complete trust in the investigation as long as it had found Trump guilty.

 

 Investigations appear to serve no greater purpose than to provide confirmational bias to our prejudices.

 

 

So you are saying that it would be "prejudiced" to link the president to his own advisors, campaign chief and lawyers crimes, at least one of which involves a statement made under oath that Trump directed him to commit?

[Tug]

Release the report we don’t trust your hand picked guy 

[quandow]

4 minutes ago, Tug said:

Release the report we don’t trust your hand picked guy 

I do believe Trump said quite clearly "Release the whole report."

[bert bloggs]

and over half of Americans are as thick as a plank ,when i was there i found them very nice ,but so many were ,to be polite dim. I remember talking to a very nice lady who asked where i came from ,i told her England , "oh thats in Paris isnt it""?

[ShortTimed]

and over half of Americans are as thick as a plank ,when i was there i found them very nice ,but so many were ,to be polite dim. I remember talking to a very nice lady who asked where i came from ,i told her England , "oh thats in Paris isnt it""?

Thats just American humor.
She was having fun with you but it went over your head.

[Antonymous]

I don’t like Trump, but I hate to see the American public being led by the nose by a biased media campaign against him.

 

Sadly this is the effect of a concerted campaign of biased opinion and fake news by the liberal press that has bombarded the American public with lies and vitriol against the President ever since their chosen candidate was defeated.

 

Now , when all they have heard and read for two years supports the false assumption that: “The sun is black”, “Look the sun is black”, “Here’s more proof that the sun is black”, deluded liberals and Democrats simply can’t open their eyes to see that in fact the sun is shining bright after all.

[bert bloggs]

Just now, ShortTimed said:

 

Thats just American humor.
She was having fun with you but it went over your head.

 

Yes of course she was ,sorry about that ,now off to have your nice cup of tea and keep on telling yourself that .. by the way i actually have a few American friends and they are very nice people ,

[attrayant]

3 minutes ago, Antonymous said:

I don’t like Trump, but I hate to see the American public being led by the nose by a biased media campaign against him.

 

[tlandtday]

“Trump or someone from his campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election,” down 6 percentage points from last week. That is not saying Trump necessarily colluded.  More slanted polling does it ever stop?

[tlandtday]

Just now, tlandtday said:

“Trump or someone from his campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election,”

 

That is not saying Trump necessarily colluded.  More slanted polling does it ever stop?

 

[lannarebirth]

12 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

 

I don't like any politicians but it is obvious the media favors some over others. But nothing.

[Skallywag]

31 minutes ago, Tug said:

Release the report we don’t trust your hand picked guy 

Cant release report- Mueller sent AG the only copy and it has already been heavily redacted.  Mueller spent 26 million taxpayer dollars - and then he forgot to buy a thumb drive to save a copy - 555. 

 

Having Trump's newly appointed AG quickly summarizing a 2 year investigation =  anticlimactic. 

[Orton Rd]

Here's an idea why don't they stop hating their president and start helping him?

[ShortTimed]

Cant release report- Mueller sent AG the only copy and it has already been heavily redacted.  Mueller spent 26 million taxpayer dollars - and then he forgot to buy a thumb drive to save a copy - 555. 
 
Having Trump's newly appointed AG quickly summarizing a 2 year investigation =  anticlimactic. 

This entire investigation was guaranteed to be anticlimactic from day one.