Most prospective GOP primary voters are unfazed by the federal indictments leveled against former President Donald Trump, as 76 percent of respondents in a new poll said they are more concerned the charges are politically motivated than they are about any national security risk posed by Trump’s handling of classified government material.
Last week, the Biden administration’s Justice Department announced a 37-count indictment against Trump that included 31 counts of “willful retention of national defense information.”
For its latest poll, CBS News/YouGov interviewed 2,480 U.S. adults between Wednesday and Saturday and recontacted 1,798 respondents on Friday and Saturday after the former president’s indictment was unsealed.
The survey found the charges did not hurt Trump’s chances to win the 2024 Republican primary election.
If anything, the move galvanized many Republicans, who believe the case was concocted to damage his presidential campaign.
When surveyed before the indictments were unsealed, 61 percent of likely GOP primary voters said any charges brought against the billionaire would not affect their view of him.
Moreover, 14 percent said the indictments would make them like Trump even more.
The Justice Department’s case has so little credibility among Republicans that 80 percent of respondents in the CBS News/YouGov poll said Trump should still be able to be president even if he were convicted.
The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 5.5 points for likely Republican primary voters and plus or minus 2.7 points for the overall sample. For the recontacted group, it was plus or minus 3.3 points overall and 6.6 points for likely GOP voters.
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