Poll: Half of Americans Agree with Trump, Believe Mueller Investigation a 'Witch Hunt'
A new survey finds that half of the American electorate shares President Donald Trump’s assessment that special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is a “witch hunt.”
According to a USA Today/Suffolk University Poll released Monday, 50 percent of registered voters agree with Trump’s oft-repeated claim that he is the target of a “witch hunt” and that he has been the subject of more investigations than his predecessors.
Meanwhile, 47 percent of respondents do not share that view.
USA Today noted that support for Congress to consider impeaching Trump has dropped 10 points since October, to 28 percent.
Further, only 28 percent stated they have a lot of trust that Mueller’s investigation will be fair and accurate, which is the lowest level to date, and down 5 points since December.
Despite the above findings, a 52 percent majority still said they had little or no trust in the president’s denials that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
However, 30 percent expressed a lot of trust in Trump’s denials, which is the highest recorded to date.
Trump tweeted about the survey’s findings, writing “very few think (the Mueller investigation) is legit!”
Wow! A Suffolk/USA Today Poll, just out, states, “50% of Americans AGREE that Robert Mueller’s investigation is a Witch Hunt.” @MSNBC Very few think it is legit! We will soon find out?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2019
In a Sunday tweet, the president contended, “What the Democrats have done in trying to steal a Presidential Election, first at the ‘ballot box’ and then, after that failed, with the ‘Insurance Policy,’ is the biggest Scandal in the history of our Country!”
Trump’s reference was to an August 2016 text from former FBI agent Peter Strzok to his mistress former FBI attorney Lisa Page in which he wrote, “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way (Trump) gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
Strzok reportedly told the Department of Justice’s inspector general that the “Andy” in the text was former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Fox News reported that Page “essentially confirmed” during congressional testimony last summer that the insurance policy was the Russia investigation.
She also communicated that investigators only had a “paucity” of evidence to launch the probe into the Trump campaign.
The FBI fired Strzok in August, while Page resigned from the bureau in May. McCabe was fired in March 2018.
In a tweet on Friday, Trump argued that Mueller has overseen “an illegal & conflicted investigation in search of a crime. Russian Collusion was nothing more than an excuse by the Democrats for losing an election they thought they were going to win.”
Trump has questioned the impartiality of Mueller’s “13 Angry and heavily conflicted Democrats” on multiple occasions.
PolitiFact reported in last March that at least 13 of the 17 lawyers on Mueller’s team are Democrats, six of whom contributed to Clinton.
Of the four remaining attorneys, the fact checker could not determine their party affiliation.
According to The Wall Street Journal, one of Mueller’s prosecutors, Andrew Weissmann — who recently stepped down from the investigation — attended Clinton’s election night party in November 2016.
Additionally, Fox News reported Russia probe attorney Jeannie Rhee represented the Clinton Foundation in 2015 and was a max donor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run.
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