Overwhelming Majority of Americans Consider Georgia Indictment ‘Serious,’ Half Say Trump Should Suspend Campaign
AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura
A new poll from ABC News and Ipsos suggests that while the four indictments of Donald Trump this year may have boosted his prospects in the Republican presidential primary, they would likely weigh him down in a general election rematch with Joe Biden.
According to the survey, a combined 63% say that the charges leveled against Trump in Georgia this week are either serious (47%) or somewhat serious (16%). And while half of America believes Trump should suspend his campaign, only 33% are willing to say outright that he should continue.
49% of Americans believe that Trump should have been charged, but the same proportion also thinks that the indictment was to some extent, politically motivated.
Both the Georgia and, more recently, the two federal indictments against Trump have pertained to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
On the right, legal analysts have disagreed about the danger the Georgia indictment poses to Trump’s freedom and political prospects.
Fox News contributor and former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy has argued that it poses the “most perilous threat” to Trump, arguing that the criminal allegations “may not be all that much of a reach.”
But others, such as Fox’s Leo Terrell, have characterized the charges as “purely political.”
Terrell’s argument appears to be winning out among the Republican primary electorate. According to the RealClearPolitics average of national surveys, Trump boasts a nearly 40 point lead over his closest competitor, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The former president’s legal troubles have, paradoxically, tracked with a significant bump in his polling.
On March 25, just a few days before Trump was indicted for the first time in New York, he led DeSantis by just 15 points.
Despite the incumbent president’s dismal approval ratings, however, Trump would still be the underdog in a rematch of the 2020 election. He trails Biden slightly in the RealClearPolitics average, but most surveys show him losing crucial demographics he would need to do well with in order to take back the White House.
