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Close to 6 in 10 Americans Want Trump Investigations to Continue

57 percent of respondents in a recent poll said that investigations into the former president should continue.

Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally on August 5, 2022, in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

A newly published NBC News survey indicates that a clear majority of Americans support the numerous investigations into former President Donald Trump, including inquiries into his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the investigation into his improper removal of classified documents from the White House.

Fifty-seven percent of the poll’s respondents said that the investigations should continue because Trump should be held accountable, while just 40 percent said they didn’t support the investigations, citing a belief that they are politically motivated.

These views differed based on ideology; while 92 percent of Democratic-leaning voters and 61 percent of independents said that the inquiries should move forward, only 21 percent of Republican-leaning voters agreed.

Officials have opened several inquiries — at both the local and national levels — into Trump’s actions as president. These inquiries include (but are not limited to): a Fulton County, Georgia, investigation into his attempt to influence state election officials; a federal investigation into his improper removal of classified documents from the White House to his private Mar-a-Lago residence; and the House select committee’s investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol building by a mob of his loyalists.

Although the NBC News poll didn’t name each investigation specifically, it did ask about the January 6 attack. The poll found that most Americans still believe the former president was at least partially responsible for the violent breach of the Capitol building, with 50 percent of respondents saying they believe that Trump is “solely or mainly responsible,” and 16 percent saying they think he is “only somewhat responsible.” Only 33 percent said that Trump was “not really responsible” at all.

Although numerous polls have suggested that Americans approve of the direction these inquiries have been taking, Trump has continued to wrongly suggest on social media that most Americans oppose the investigations — and that his polling numbers are improving because of it.

Trump recently shared a post on his Truth Social site showing that he had a 40-point lead over Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in a hypothetical GOP primary race. However, that same poll, conducted by Politico/Morning Consult, found that 58 percent of Americans believe Trump broke the law as president. Forty-nine percent of the poll’s respondents approved of the Mar-a-Lago search, while only 37 percent disapproved.

Predictably, Trump did not share that portion of the polling data.

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