A Yahoo News/YouGov poll had some surprising findings.
Former President Trump is facing 91 felony charges stemming from multiple legal battles. In case you lost track, he has been sued in New York and indicted in Georgia, Florida, Manhattan, and Washington, D.C, where officials have opened investigations.
While there’s still a long way to go when it comes to legal proceedings, 50 percent of voters say that if Trump is convicted of one of his charges, it would be a “fair outcome meant to hold him accountable for his actions,” according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll released on Jan. 29.
While the deadlock on that topic might shock some, unsurprisingly, these views were splintered by party. More than half — 72 percent — of GOP voters already think any conviction against the former president would be unfair and politically motivated. (For context, this survey was conducted from Jan. 25 to 29 and based on responses from 1,594 U.S. adults.)
As the highly-anticipated election nears, here’s a closer look at what else the survey found and how Americans view the former president.
Do Americans think Trump is guilty?
As of now, 45 percent of Americans think Trump will likely win the 2024 election, according to Yahoo News, compared to 37 percent who think Biden will come out on top.
But if Trump is convicted of a serious crime, that flips to 35 percent for Trump and 39 percent for Biden. What’s interesting is that the 10-point drop for the former president was driven largely by GOP and independent voters.
When asked about four crimes he’s been charged with (paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to cover up their alleged affair, conspiring to overturn the results of a presidential election, attempting to obstruct the certification of a presidential election, and taking highly classified documents from the White House and obstructing efforts to retrieve them), the majority of respondents believe Trump is guilty of all of them — “guilty” accounted for 40 and 50 percent of the responses for each prompt. (The other options were “not guilty” and “not sure.”) At the same time, respondents aren’t as confident he’ll be found guilty. The results are more evenly split between “will be found guilty,” “will not be found guilty,” and “not sure” — especially when it comes to “conspiring to overturn the results of a presidential election” and “attempting to obstruct the certification of a presidential election.”
Are voters aware of Trump’s legal woes?
You might be surprised to learn that just 50-60 percent of Americans know that Trump has been indicted for each alleged crime. While it’s likely hard for the average person to keep up with his many charges, this is still pretty low if you consider the near-constant media coverage of his legal battles.
The level of public awareness of Trump’s crimes also depended on the charge. For instance, 58 percent of voters heard about Trump taking classified documents from the White House and 50 percent had heard of his indictment for attempting to obstruct the certification of a presidential election.
Republicans appear especially unaware of Trump’s indictments: Most said he either hasn’t been indicted on a particular charge (24 percent to 30 percent) or that they’re not sure (27 percent to 35 percent).
But these views could shift once the trials for one of Trump’s various cases start up. First up is the hush money trial, which is set to begin April 15 in New York.
Do Americans think a Trump conviction would make him unfit for office?
More than half of voters — 53 percent — believe Trump shouldn’t be allowed to serve again if he is ultimately convicted of one of his crimes. But there were some major partisan differences: 78 percent to 83 percent of Democrats said convictions on the documents or election charges would make a candidate unfit to be president, compared to 25 percent to 32 percent of Republicans.
This sentiment wasn’t as strong when it came to some of Trump’s cases: Just 40 percent thought Trump wouldn’t be fit for office if he was found guilty of paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to cover up their alleged affair.
Responses were pretty much split when asked which is a bigger problem when it comes to their fitness for the presidency: Biden’s age or Trump’s charges.
Regardless of how Americans feel, Trump could still be elected president in 2024 even if he’s found guilty and no law would automatically block him from holding office. For the record, the only qualifications to run for president are the person must be at least 35 years old, a natural-born citizen, and have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years.
But Americans don’t realize this: When asked if a person convicted of a serious crime would be “prevented by law from serving as president,” 40 percent said yes, 26 percent said no, and another 33 percent weren’t sure. It’s worth noting that 53 percent of Democrats got this question wrong, as did 31 percent of Republicans. While it’s impossible to know how Trump’s trials will shake out, they could be a rude awakening for even some of his most ardent supporters.
