A majority of Americans approve of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign in the 2016 election, according to a new Washington Post-ABC poll. Smaller majorities also approve of Mueller looking into President Donald Trump’s businesses and hush money paid to women with whom Trump allegedly had affairs.
Overall, 69 percent of respondents support Mueller’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, 64 percent support his probe of Trump’s business dealings, and 58 percent support his investigation into money paid to silence women about their alleged affairs with Trump.
When that data is broken down by respondents’ political allegiences, Republicans disapprove of Mueller’s investigation into all three of those areas by 51 percent, 62 percent, and 64 percent, respectively.
Both Democrats and Independents support all three areas of investigation by sizable margins: Democratic approval tops 80 percent for each focus; Independents support each focus by 70 percent, 65 percent, and 59 percent respectively.
According to the Washington Post, the poll was conducted from Sunday to Wednesday. That means that news of the FBI raid on Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen’s properties broke during the interviews.
Only 51% of Republicans think Trump shouldn’t be investigated for collusion. He’s in big trouble with his own party.
ABC gauging the opinion of the American Public. Faux News influencing an imbalanced buffoon.
Holy crap. Those numbers for Republicans are catastrophic. The RNC and it’s subunits are betting the midterm farm on whipping up base support with a narrative that half of Republicans are going to recoil from in disgust.
I haven’t the time to check, but my recollection is that those numbers are pretty close to Nixon’s on the eve of his resignation.
With those kinds of numbers, firing Rosenstein, puts himself on a downhill rocket sled to the land of Foregone Conclusions. And he’s too NPD to know it.
Mueller’s hard work has earned him credibility with the public. People are genuinely curious to know the extent of Trump’s crimes and Russia’s efforts to undermine our Democracy. Trump does consume poll information and he’ll back off. I do think the events of this week will cause him to seek a back channel to Mueller to negotiate for his exit in exchange for avoidance of prosecution.
I know he huffed and puffed at Rosenstein and there are articles out there stating that Rosenstein is preparing to be fired by Trump but (as I’ve maintained) I think it’s too late for that. If I’m proven wrong, I’ll own up to it. These are all probabilities and guesses, not certainties.
Trump’s best hope is that Mueller chooses not to indict and the House chooses not to impeach. The best way to angle for that is to sit quiet and let things proceed. His other option, of course, is to negotiate for an exit.
If he does fire Rosenstein and Sessions, both of those two will stab Trump like the Romans after Caesar. I think Trump knows this, which is why he didn’t do it earlier. Now, he has the strongest confirmation yet that his attempts to undermine Mueller aren’t working and Mueller is getting stronger.
Right now it is being reported in the WSJ that a Trump insider says firing Rosenstein and Sessions is now only a matter of time. The angrier Trump gets, the less impulse control he will have. He is probably smashing things and punching walls with his tiny hands right now.