(Walt Mancini/The Pasadena Star-News/SCNG via AP)
The numbers are coming amid disgraced and criminally-indicted former president Donald J. Trump and his “favorability rating” among voters has plunged to 25 percent, the lowest number for any frontline candidate in recent history or memory.
In the same ABC Wests/IPSOS poll, 61 percent of all voters — Republican, independent, and Democrat — now have an “unfavorable” view of him and the presidency he lost in 2020.
The numbers show that those who feel Trump should suspend his campaign for the presidency has risen by five points to 48 percent and at least half of Americans feel he should be charged with crimes and 53 percent feel he is guilty of other crimes.
This “signals trouble for Republicans, says Eric Garcia on Yahoo News. “If Republican primary voters expect them to throw their weight behind the former president and defend him vigorously against these charges, however, politicized voters might think they are, that could risk alienating them with the voters they need come November.”
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” broadcast Tuesday, former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough said a 25 percent favorability rating puts Trump “in the company of fringe candidates.”
“This means one out of four voters has a solid unfavorable view of Trump,” he said.
Others say the numbers dropping this fast shows the favorability rating will drop even more when indictments come in on his misuse of classified documents, construction of justice during the Jan. 9 2021 Capitol riot where his supporters trashed the Capitol, threatened to “hang ” vice president Pence, injured many, including police officers.
Many of those have been convicted in Federal Court and are serving prison sentences. Some, like the treasonous Proud Boys militia group and other such illegal militias, have been tried for seditious conspiracy.
Another poll, by CNN, shows 60 percent approve of the indictments handed down on Trump so far;
Independents largely line up in support of the indictment – 62% approve of it and 38% disapprove. Democrats are near universal in their support for the indictment (94% approve, including 71% who strongly approve of the indictment), with Republicans less unified in opposition (79% disapprove, with 54% strongly disapproving).
While views on the indictment are split along party lines, the poll finds that majorities across major demographic divides all approve of the decision to indict the former president. That includes gender (62% of women, 58% of men), racial and ethnic groups (82% of Black adults, 71% of Hispanic adults, 51% of White adults), generational lines (69% under age 35; 62% age 35-49; 53% age 50-64; 54% 65 or older) and educational levels (68% with college degrees, 56% with some college or less).
CNN has reported that the former president faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud, but the indictment remains under seal and the charges were not publicly known at the time of the survey. The investigation relates to a $130,000 payment made by Trump’s then-personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to Daniels in late October 2016, days before the 2016 presidential election, to silence her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair. At issue in the investigation is the payment made to Daniels and the Trump Organization’s reimbursement to Cohen.
A scant 10% overall see Trump as blameless regarding payments made to Daniels, but Americans are divided about whether his actions were illegal or merely unethical. About 4 in 10 say he acted illegally (37%), 33% unethically but not illegally, and another 20% say they aren’t sure. Only 8% of political independents say Trump did nothing wrong, and among the rest, they are mostly on board with the indictment even if they aren’t already convinced Trump did something illegal.
–CNN
