Despite his feverish public rants, polling shows Trump does not have the support of a majority of the country as he deals with new criminal charges at the federal level that cover his alleged willful retention of classified documents and attempted obstruction, the latter of which he allegedly perpetrated as federal authorities sought to investigate the situation and secure the return of the materials.
Polling that was recently conducted by YouGov in association with The Economist found that 49 percent of Americans agree Trump “should” face criminal charges for his handling of the documents. And the rest don’t all disagree. Those who answered in the negative were only 35 percent of the total, with 16 percent saying they weren’t sure. Even among respondents identified as Republican, 16 percent said yes to Trump facing criminal charges, and with independents, the total was 46 percent.
On other questions, the trend continued. A full 56 percent said they believe Trump intentionally took classified documents as his presidency ended, and 72 percent agreed that it was either somewhat or very serious for a president to take classified documents with them as they exit the office. This polling was finalized on June 6. Remember all the anger at Hillary Clinton having supposedly mishandled sensitive information and how many times that Trump supporters began chanting to jail the prominent Democrat? Now, it’s not Clinton facing allegations of dozens of counts of felony criminal activity, including 31 alleged violations of the federal law known as the Espionage Act.
There have been some concerns about those who are in Trump’s corner responding with even potential violence to the news of his latest indictment. It’s worth noting, though, that nothing much along those lines happened after Trump was indicted in a state case in New York for allegedly falsified business records. In both instances, it’s not only prosecutors who decided on bringing charges. Both of these indictments were approved by local juries, the first in New York City and the second in southern Florida. It does not accurately reflect how these investigations have actually been conducted to assert that political considerations played any kind of reasonably significant role.
