The following article by Eugene Scott was posted on the Washington Post website January 24, 2018:
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Jan. 23 that President Trump “is going to be fully cooperative with the special counsel.” (Reuters)
President Trump regularly claims that there was “no collusion” between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to interfere in the election.
The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues. There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!
Just Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was pressed on what the president means when he says “no collusion.”
“The accusation against the president is that he had help winning the election, and that’s simply untrue. The president won because he was the better candidate, because he worked harder, because he had a message that America actually cared about and believed in and came out in a historic fashion and supported and voted for him,” Sanders said.
However, the conclusion of multiple intelligence agencies that Russia did interfere in the election suggests that Trump actually may have had some help, whether knowingly or not.
But large percentages of Americans aren’t so convinced that Trump’s campaign wasn’t involved — and it’s not just Democrats. Half of Americans believe the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC poll.
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is seeking to question the president in the coming weeks about his decisions to fire national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James B. Comey, according to two people familiar with his plans, The Post reported. The potential Trump interviews come amid the broader inquiry into the wide-ranging investigation that has already led to charges against four former Trump advisers.
The move indicates that Mueller’s investigation is aggressively scrutinizing possible efforts by Trump to interfere in the special counsel’s probe.
This direction from Mueller appears to confirm some Americans’ beliefs that Trump played a role in the collusion, or that he may have interfered in the probe. Nearly half — 49 percent — of Americans believe Trump himself tried to interfere with the Russia investigation in a way that amounts to obstruction of justice. And about a quarter — 26 percent — of Americans believe there is “strong evidence” supporting their belief.
As expected, the majority of groups that have consistently been critical of Trump, such as liberals, African Americans and millennials, believe Trump’s behavior could have been obstruction of justice.
But so do groups such as independents — swing voters that Trump relied on to get elected. More than half — 51 percent — believe that Trump directly tried to interfere in the investigation.
Trump often blasts his political opponents for supporting the investigation, pointing to their bitterness over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s loss as their primary motivation.
But he seems to believe that the public agrees with him that the idea of a “Russian hoax,” meaning the investigation, is dead. He tweeted:
“Do you notice the Fake News Mainstream Media never likes covering the great and record setting economic news, but rather talks about anything negative or that can be turned into the negative. The Russian Collusion Hoax is dead, except as it pertains to the Dems. Public gets it!”
But sizable percentages of the demographic groups that helped elect Trump think Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia, including:
- More than a quarter — 27 percent — of Americans who identify as “conservative.”
- More than a third — 36 percent — of white non-college Americans.
- More than four in 10 — 43 percent — of Americans 65 and older believe Trump interfered.
- More than a third — 36 percent — of white men believe he interfered.
Trump’s historically low approval ratings aren’t just because the people who voted against him in 2016 remain critical of the president’s vision for America. The president is struggling to keep those who voted for him to continue to support him.
It is common for lawmakers running for reelection to focus on expanding their base. But these latest poll numbers show that the president may have to spend significant time convincing his supporters that he and his campaign did not collude with another world power to influence the outcome of a presidential election.
View the post here.