New Poll Shows 60% Of Americans Approve Of Trump Indictment

Tomorrow is an historic day, both in the life of one Donald J. Trump and in the history of the United States. Trump anticipates that the indictment in Manhattan will serve as “rocket fuel” to his fundraising. Mebbe. Mebbe not, since a new poll shows that 60% of Americans believe that this is a good thing. CNN:

Sixty percent of Americans approve of the indictment of former President Donald Trump, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS following the news that a New York grand jury voted to charge him in connection with hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. About three-quarters of Americans say politics played at least some role in the decision to indict Trump, including 52% who said it played a major role.

Independents largely line up in support of the indictment – 62% approve of it and 38% disapprove. Democrats are near universal in their support for the indictment (94% approve, including 71% who strongly approve of the indictment), with Republicans less unified in opposition (79% disapprove, with 54% strongly disapproving).

While views on the indictment are split along party lines, the poll finds that majorities across major demographic divides all approve of the decision to indict the former president. That includes gender (62% of women, 58% of men), racial and ethnic groups (82% of Black adults, 71% of Hispanic adults, 51% of White adults), generational lines (69% under age 35; 62% age 35-49; 53% age 50-64; 54% 65 or older) and educational levels (68% with college degrees, 56% with some college or less).

And here’s an interesting stat.

A scant 10% overall see Trump as blameless regarding payments made to Daniels, but Americans are divided about whether his actions were illegal or merely unethical. About 4 in 10 say he acted illegally (37%), 33% unethically but not illegally, and another 20% say they aren’t sure. Only 8% of political independents say Trump did nothing wrong, and among the rest, they are mostly on board with the indictment even if they aren’t already convinced Trump did something illegal.

Evidently Trump’s method going forward is to push the political persecution angle. This will daunt American spirits, to be sure. What Trump is asking us to do is disbelieve in the rule of law and believe, instead, in some vast conspiracy against him. And we’re not talking about anything like the “vast right-wing conspiracy” that Hillary Clinton spoke of. That was a calculated smear job that stretched over a 20-year period.

No, we’re talking about a conspiracy that involves district attorneys, special counsel, the Department of Justice, and all manner of people actually making up evidence against Donald Trump. Which is comical, if you think about it, because he lives his life in such a manner that nobody needs to make up anything he’s doing. He’s out there breaking lies right and left. Always has been, ask his niece, Mary.

But that is the ball that Trump is going to try to pitch at the American people, that he is a blameless victim and everything in the indictment is lies. And I guess he intends to extend that to ALL the indictments, which could come down against him.

As you read over the weekend, Jack Smith has obtained video footage of Trump’s valet moving boxes of classified documents, after the subpoena for same had been served at Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s duty at that point was the comply with the subpoena. Period. Of course, he did not. He still labored under a delusion that these papers were his, belonged to him, all that. An indictment could come down from Jack Smith, sooner rather than later, on this matter, or on the matter of Trump’s involvement in the January 6 riot.

And don’t forget Fani Willis in Georgia and election interference. That could result in an indictment as well.

But Trump is evidently a believer in magical thinking, because he believes that the Manhattan indictment will swell his campaign coffers and get him back into the White House. Are Americans that drop dead stupid? Yes, he got in the White House once, and then voters threw him out because of the horrible job he did. Does Trump believe that that will all be forgotten and that voters will reward him by restoring him to power, because the majority of us will believe that he was actually the target of an unfair and contrived political witch hunt? And not just one, but FOUR?

I have no idea. The one thing I can say is that the sickness which is the Republican party in this day and age is undoubtedly going to put him on the ballot again, unless there is some major reversal. And that is really the problem. A lot of prominent Republicans can’t stand the man (have you heard from Mitch, lately?) but they won’t come forward to denounce Trump or do much of anything. They’re hiding in the shadows, too scared to do anything. So the sickness metastasizes and the political narrative becomes more toxic by the day.

It’s too difficult to guess the future. We’re at a juncture where facts are coming to light and events are shaping up which could change things dramatically. We’re going to have to sit back and watch it all unfold.

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