A new poll finds an overwhelming percentage of Americans don’t think President Donald Trump is doing enough to protect U.S. elections from possible foreign interference.
The new CNN poll finds six in 10 Americans, or 60 percent, don’t think Trump is taking the issue seriously enough to safeguard future elections.
In addition, roughly the same number of respondents don’t think Trump is taking the probe into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign seriously enough.
Overall, pollsters found roughly 72 percent of respondents said they are generally worried about the prospect of foreign government interference in U.S. elections, with 90 percent of Democrats agreeing, 68 percent of independents, and 53 percent of Republicans.
The poll came on the heels of special counsel Robert Mueller announcing he has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities suspected of being involved in 2016 election meddling. The shenanigans are reported to have included spreading false information on social media, organizing political events, and communicating with “unwitting” people tied to the Trump campaign and others in order to coordinate political activities.
Just as he has since the allegations of such actions became public, Trump instantly took to social media to deny that there was any collusion on the part of the campaign team.
Meanwhile, Trump’s handling of Mueller’s ongoing investigation continues to elicit negative reviews for the administration, with 70 percent of CNN respondents expressing dissatisfaction with his handling of the situation and 55 percent admitting they now believe Trump has attempted to interfere in the investigation, up from 51 percent just over the last several weeks.
In all, 61 percent of respondents agreed that the Russia probe is a serious matter that should be fully investigated.
In an unrelated CNN poll, Trump’s approval rating recently slipped by five points in just over a month’s time, ending at a historical low of just 35 percent.
The dreadful numbers came after Trump’s approvals showed slight signs of improvement during a period where the economy showed signs of life and the stock market appeared on an impressive upswing.
Since then, the administration has been dogged by negative storylines ranging from revelations that several key White House staffers lacked permanent security clearance, the implementation of a new policy to handle interim security clearances, and news that multiple White House staffers had resigned following accusations of domestic abuse.
Perhaps even more alarming for the beleaguered administration, Trump scored his lowest approvals among Republicans to date, with just 80 percent of self-identified GOP voters now openly expressing support for him.
