Almost half in new US poll still say Trump, Russia colluded

NEW YORK, March 27 (APP):Almost half the Americans surveyed in a new poll still say they believe that US President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election, despite a summary of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that said there was no evidence to support that finding.

A Reuters/Ipsos survey released Wednesday found that 48 percent of respondents said they believe that the president “or someone from his campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election,” down 6 points over the last week.

Roughly 1 in 5 voters in a new Politico/Morning Consult poll — 21 percent — said Mueller’s team “found evidence that President Trump or his campaign conspired with Russia to influence the results of the 2016 election,” despite Attorney General William Barr’s summary indicating that it did not.

Voters are also still split on the issue of obstruction of justice, a crime for which Mueller’s team could not “exonerate” the president, according to Barr. Nearly half — 47 percent — of respondents in the Politico/Morning Consult poll said that Trump “tried to impede or obstruct the investigation,” while 53 percent said the same to Reuters/Ipsos pollsters.

Just 9 percent of respondents told Reuters/Ipsos that Barr’s summary on Mueller’s investigation had changed their minds, while 57 percent want to see the full report released.

“As the Mueller report conclusion reverberates broadly, our polling suggests that the release of the summary findings has had little impact on President Trump’s favorability,” Morning Consult pollster Tyler Sinclair told Politico.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which surveyed 1,003 adults, has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. The Politico/Morning Consult poll surveyed 1,974 registered voters, and its margin of error is 2 percentage points.