Republicans have started to increasingly complain about how the special counsel is handling the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, a CNN poll shows. According to it, Republicans are also more likely to say that President Donald Trump should not testify under oath for the special counsel.
Overall, 44% approve of the way Robert Mueller is handling the investigation and 38% disapprove, a slight negative shift overall since March, CNN writes. Back then, 48 percent approved of the special counsel’s work. Among Republicans alone, Mueller’s approval rating was 29 percent in March and is now down to only 17 percent. Among Democrats and independents, approval ratings for Mueller have not changed significantly.
Republicans also strongly believe that the president should not testify before Mueller. Overall, 70% say he should testify under oath, but among Republicans, only 39 percent believe so, another negative shift since March, when 54% said Trump should testify under oath.
Among independents and Democrats, support for Trump testifying has not changed compared with previous CNN polling on the topic. About 6 in 10 (62%) overall say Mueller ought to subpoena the president if he won’t agree to speak with investigators.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll similarly showed that 61% of Republicans describe the investigation as unfair.
In the CNN poll, Trump’s approval rating for handling the investigation remains deeply negative, with 55% disapproving of the way he’s handling it and only 31% approving. However, a slightly higher percentage of people believe that what he publicly says about the investigation is true.
This percentage is, of course, significantly higher among his fellow partisans, with 75 percent. On the other hand, most Democrats (84%) and independents (52%) believe his statements have been largely false.
More Americans say they believe the things former FBI Director James Comey has said publicly about the investigation, according to a poll conducted shortly after the release of his controversial book. More precisely, 49 percent of Americans say Comey has mostly said true things publicly about the investigation, while 37 percent say his statements have been mostly false.
The poll also shows that a vast majority of Americans – 84%, including majorities across party lines (93% of Democrats, 86% of independents, 72% of Republicans) – say they think the investigators should produce a full, public report on their findings regardless of the outcome of the investigation.
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