Huge Majority of American Voters Say Trump Should Be Prosecuted for His Crimes

By Glynn Wilson –

This just in — and this is HUGE — as Trump and Bernie Sanders used to say.

A huge majority, 74 percent of the American people now believe Donald Trump — the former president being investigated on a number of fronts most notably for inciting an insurrection and leading a seditious conspiracy to overthrow democracy in the United States — is guilty of committing crimes. Sixty-six percent of U.S. voters, two-thirds of the population, say he should definitely be prosecuted.

That’s according to the latest Morning Consult Poll, and it shows that public opinion is moving away from Trump as the investigation gears up, although he still commands support among Republican voters.

“While some Republicans may hope that the Jan. 6 proceedings will help them push Trump out of the party, the trend data suggests that might be a tad optimistic,” survey analysts say. “There is, however, still the possibility that the former president’s chances of another GOP presidential bid will be hindered by the criminal justice system, and the latest … data — from surveys conducted before former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s bombshell testimony Tuesday — already shows ample support for a (criminal) prosecution of the former president.”

Roughly two-thirds of voters (65%) believe Trump attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, including 88 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of independents and 40 percent of Republicans.

Among voters who believe Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 result, 3 out of 4 think Trump committed a crime.

Most Republicans who believe Trump worked to overturn the 2020 outcome say his actions were not criminal (57%), while 87 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of independents say they constitute a crime that merits criminal prosecution.

As far as evidence of how the hearings and the media coverage is penetrating public opinion, very few Republicans (around 15%) said they have seen, read or heard “a lot” about the special panel’s daytime hearings over the course of two weeks, “but that doesn’t mean bad coverage about the former president hasn’t been noticed,” according to analysts. The survey found that 41 percent of Republican voters had seen, heard or read something “mainly negative” about Trump in recent weeks — nearly doubling from 24 percent the weekend before the June 9 hearing in prime time.

“While Trump has retained support for a presidential bid and continues to boast a strong favorability rating (84%) with voters in his party, there are signs that the past several weeks, which have kept a steady focus on the worst moments of his presidency, have slightly dampened his standing,” they say.

The share of Republican voters who said Trump should play a “major role” in the party fell from 60 percent to 51 percent, with those voters increasingly saying he should play either a minor role or no role at all.

Trump has lost little support among Republican voters for a third presidential run, however, even as a special House committee reveals evidentiary details about his culpability for the Capitol attack.

The trend numbers show former Vice President Mike Pence losing ground with the party’s voters, perhaps due to his performance standing up for the rule of law during the “stop the steal” big lie campaign. The House Select Committee has shown the details of how Pence stood up to Trump, and helped save democracy by going through with the actual vote certification on Jan. 6.

Republican voters are only punishing him for it.

The beneficiary appears to be Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose support from Republican voters bumped up from 16 to 22 percent for a run in the presidential primary of 2024. That finding nationally comes after a recent University of New Hampshire survey of that early key primary state showed DeSantis effectively tied with Trump.

Still, 53 percent of Republican voters would back Trump if the 2024 primary were today, unchanged from a survey conducted just before the House panel began holding its high-profile public hearings in early June.

Pence, a potential 2024 contender who recently has stumped for candidates targeted by Trump in Republican primaries and seen his associates elevated as important committee witnesses, is backed by 8 percent of Republican voters, down from 13 percent before the hearings began.

The survey tested support for a dozen other potential Republican contenders, from former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the House committee’s vice chair. No other candidate got more than 3 percent support. It’s Trump, DeSantis and Pence, so far, but watch out for Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, my sources say.

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The latest Morning Consult/Politico survey was conducted June 24-26, 2022, among a representative sample of 2,005 registered U.S. voters, with an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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