March 29 (UPI) — Half of Americans believe Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential campaign, a CBS News Poll released Wednesday indicates.
As the Senate and House intelligence committees, and FBI get underway into an investigation of Russia’s alleged involvement in the 2016 presidential election, a new poll shows 40 percent of Americans believe Russia interfered in order to help President Donald Trump win the election. Another 10 percent believe Russia meddled in the election but not to aid Trump and 37 percent don’t believe Russia interfered at all.
Among self-identified Democrats, 67 percent believe the involvement was to help Trump win; 13 percent of Republicans agreed. Of those who believe there was no Russian interference, 16 percent are Democrats and 64 percent are Republicans.
On the question of whether or not to investigate links between Trump associates and Russia, the poll revealed that 63 percent of respondents favor an investigation while 33 percent do not. Those favoring an investigation include 82 percent of Democrats and 35 percent of Republicans; those opposing one include 14 percent of Democrats and 59 percent of Republicans.
Meanwhile, 41 percent of surveyed Republicans said the bill to alter the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, which stalled in the House of Representatives last week, failed because it “just wasn’t popular.” Thirty percent blamed Democrats for a lack of compromise. Of the entire surveyed group, 49 percent cited the bill’s unpopularity and 14 percent blamed House Democrats. Another 14 percent blamed Trump.
The CBS News Poll indicates Trump’s favorability rating stands at 40 percent; it has hovered between 39 and 40 percent since he took office in January. A Gallup poll released Tuesday showed Trump with his lowest favorability since inauguration at 36 percent and FiveThirtyEight’s aggregation of polls had Trump’s approval at 41.3 percent Wednesday.
The CBS poll was conducted by telephone, between March 25-28 among a random sample of 1,088 adults nationwide through landline telephones and cellphones by SSRS of Media, Pa. The sample error was 4 percentage points.
