More than half of registered voters believe a host of investigations involving former President Trump — from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol to his pressure campaign to overturn his 2020 election defeat — should continue, according to a new survey.
An NBC News poll revealed 57 percent of voters think the investigations should continue “because if there is wrongdoing by Donald Trump, he needs to be held accountable just like anyone else.”
Forty percent, on the other hand, think the investigations should not continue “because they are politically motivated against a former president and divide the nation.”
Just 21 percent of Republican voters think the investigations should go forward, compared with 92 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents, according to the poll.
The FBI recovered 11 sets of classified documents from Trump’s residence when it executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, and recently unsealed records suggest investigators are looking into potential violations of the Espionage Act and other laws.
Trump also pleaded the Fifth earlier this month before the New York attorney general probing his business and finances — and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was told last week that he’s a main focus of a Georgia special grand jury investigating attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.
The former president is also a main focus of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S Capitol, and lawmakers on the committee have pressed the Justice Department to criminally investigate Trump over his role.
Half of respondents in the NBC News poll said they thought Trump was solely or mainly responsible for the Jan. 6 riot. Sixteen percent thought Trump was only somewhat to blame, and 33 percent thought he was “not really responsible” for the incident.
More than half of voters reported having “somewhat negative” or “very negative” feelings toward the former president at 54 percent. Just under half of voters reported having negative feelings toward the Republican Party in general at 49 percent.
Forty-two percent of voters expressed they had “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of faith that the House select committee is conducting a fair and impartial probe. Thirteen percent reported “only some” confidence, 41 percent reported “very little” and 4 percent reported none.
Conducted Aug. 12 to Aug. 16, shortly after the Mar-a-Lago search, the poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
