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In recent months, Donald Trump has found himself buried in a growing pile of lawsuits and investigations. Officials are probing his company’s finances, his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, his role in inciting a mob on January 6, and, most recently, his alleged possession of classified documents. And from the outset, Trump and his supporters have claimed that the various investigations into his alleged wrongdoing are political hit jobs, rather than legitimate legal inquiries.
Now, a new NBC News poll suggests that a majority of American voters disagree.
According to the poll, 57 percent of voters said they thought investigations into Trump’s conduct should continue “because he needs to be held accountable,” while 40 percent said they should not continue “because they are politically motivated and divide the nation.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, there were stark differences along party lines: While 92 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents approved of the investigations, just 21 percent of Republicans thought the same.
The poll included 1,000 registered voters and was conducted between August 12 and 16, just days after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in connection with a criminal investigation by the Justice Department. NBC News also asked voters about Trump’s role in inciting rioters to overtake the Capitol on January 6: Fifty percent of those polled said they thought the then-president was either solely responsible or mainly responsible for the attack. In May, before the January 6 committee’s televised hearings, that number was 45 percent, NBC notes.
While the support for investigating Trump is noteworthy, it’s unclear whether the results are indicative of how Americans will vote in the midterms. So far, Trump-backed candidates have generally fared well in their primary races. And voters are still split on which party they want to control Congress in 2023, the survey found, with 47 percent of respondents preferring a Republican-controlled Congress and 45 percent preferring Democrats in charge.
See a full breakdown of the results here.
