Day 143: Poll: Trump Losing Battle With Comey
Everyone — including Republicans — thinks Trump lied about loyalty pledge demand.
Donald Trump keeps railing against former FBI director James Comey.
Take this morning, for example.
It’s a losing battle.
A new HuffPost/YouGov poll overwhelmingly shows that Americans trust and believe Comey at significantly higher levels than they do Trump.
In terms of favorability, Trump was net -15%, while Comey was +1%.(Trump even failed to get a “very favorable” rating above 50% solely among the Republicans polled.)
Excluding party affiliation, across virtually every spectrum — race, income level, age, gender, census region — Americans conclude that the Trump-Russia relationship is a legitimate and very serious or somewhat serious issue. (In many cases, people who were “unsure” outpaced those who think the relationship was not a problem.) The poll also showed that most people are paying attention to the issue and believe they have a good grasp on the subject.
Again, in virtual unanimity, Americans consider Trump was wrong for firing Comey. In a landslide, Americans think “Trump fired Comey at least partly to disrupt the Russia investigation.”
Despite proclaiming himself vindicated by Comey’s congressional testimony last week, Trump was anything but. By over a 2 to 1 margin, Comey’s testimony greatly damaged the view of the Trump administration.
Everyone, including Republicans by a 37–23 margin, surmise that Trump asked Comey for a loyalty pledge, despite Trump’s denials on the matter. Americans deduce that Trump tried to get Comey to drop the investigation into former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.
Finally, overwhelmingly, by 46–26 margin, Americans believe Comey to be more trustworthy than Trump. Democrats’ margin on this was 78–5, while Republicans 58–16 and Independents 41–22.
The big takeaways: Americans think Trump-Russia is important; Trump asked Comey for a loyalty pledge; Trump asked Comey to drop the Flynn investigation; Americans believe Comey over Trump.
Trump will keep hitting Twitter, fighting an unwinnable tussle.
143 days in, 1319 to go
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