Two-Thirds of GOP Voters Still Back Indicted Ex-President, Poll Finds
Two-thirds of Republicans say they still stand behind the ex-president even in light of his recent indictment and ongoing legal investigations, according to a new NBC News poll. But Republicans are divided on whether they would vote for Donald Trump or another Republican candidate if the primary were held today.
When asked their view on the investigations into Trump, 68 percent of GOP primary voters agreed with the statement that the probes are a “politically motivated attempt to stop Trump.” The former president was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury late last month on charges related to a hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels weeks before the 2020 election. If you ask all voters, not just Republicans, more than half (52 percent) believe Trump is not being targeted politically and the investigations are holding Trump to the same standard as anyone else accused of similar crimes.
The same NBC News survey found that 46 percent of Republican primary voters would favor Trump over other GOP presidential hopefuls, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had 31 percent of Republican primary voters supporting him, giving Trump a two-digit lead over his nearest rival.
President Joe Biden led Democrats’ choices for a nominee, according to the poll, but voters are not eager for a Biden-Trump rematch in 2024. Sixty percent of respondents said they did not want Trump to run again, and seventy percent said they don’t want Biden to enter the 2024 race. In a hypothetical November match between Biden and Trump, 88 percent of Democrats said they would support the current president.
Poll respondents also weighed in on abortion, with 58 percent saying that abortion should be legal. Thirty-eight percent agreed that abortion should be legal with exceptions while six percent support making abortion legal without exceptions. The poll indicates that the public’s view has not shifted on this issue over the past year compared to results from the prior year. Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled to overturn federal protections on abortion, leading many Republican-led states to pass restrictive laws banning the procedure. Republicans are now trying to advance legislation that would ban the procedure nationwide while also targeting in the courts the FDA’s two-decades old approval of abortion medication mifepristone, despite a majority of the nation supporting legal abortion.