CNN and ABC Run Polls Asking People If They Agree with Trump’s Indictment – Without Knowing What’s in It
CNN and ABC News have conducted a poll asking whether people agree with the decision to indict former President Donald Trump despite the fact the charges aren’t publicly available yet.
Trump will be arraigned tomorrow in Manhattan, reportedly on about 30 counts. At least some of those supposedly pertain to the falsification of business records deriving from a 2016 payment he made to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair. But again, the actual charges will remain unknown until Tuesday.
Nevertheless, this inconvenient fact did not stop CNN and ABC from conducting a poll asking Americans whether they approve or disapprove of the Manhattan district attorney’s decision to prosecute Trump.
“[W]e’re getting new CNN polling revealing how the American public is reacting to the former president’s indictment,” Wolf Blitzer said on Monday’s edition of The Situation Room.
Blitzer welcomed CNN Political Director David Chalian to break down the numbers.
“We went into the field and did this new exclusive CNN poll conducted by SSRS just after the indictment [last Thursday], and look at the results here,” Chalian stated. “Sixty percent of Americans approve of the indictment of Donald Trump. Forty percent disapprove.”
For this question the poll did not include an option to answer, “not sure,” but frankly it is the only sensible one to give until the charges are known.
Chalian explained that 94% of Democrats approve of the indictment that has yet to be released, while 62% of independents and 21% of Republicans approve of the indictment that has yet to be released.
The survey further asked respondents whether they believe Trump’s payment to Daniels was “illegal,” “unethical, not illegal,” “not wrong at all,” or “not sure.”
It should be noted that it is generally not illegal to pay someone to keep an affair quiet. None of the reporting has indicated Trump will be charged for the payment alone.
In any case, a plurality of 37% said the payment was “illegal.”
The poll also asked if politics played a role in the indictment that they haven’t seen yet. A whopping 76% said “yes” and just 14% said no.
“And in fact, that includes 52% – a slim majority – of independents, Wolf,” Chalian explained. “So, two thoughts are being held by the American people at the same time. They see politics at play, but they also believe that the indictment is the right thing to do.”
To discuss the poll, Blitzer then turned to a panel of pundits that also does not know what’s in the indictment.
Meanwhile, ABC News also conducted a poll showing that a plurality of 45% of Americans support the indictment they haven’t seen.
Watch above via CNN.
This post has been updated to include the poll conducted by ABC News.
