According to a recent poll, the majority of respondents believe former President Donald Trump committed serious criminal offenses.
In a New York Times/Siena College poll, 53% of respondents felt Mr. Trump had committed significant crimes, 39% claimed he hadn’t, and 9% were undecided or failed to reply.
Ninety-eight percent of Democrats believe Mr. Trump has committed major crimes, while 17 percent of Republicans agree. 49% of independents agreed with the statement.
Jury selection has begun in Mr. Trump’s hush money lawsuit in New York. The former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records and fraud for allegedly classifying hush money payments as legal expenses to conceal an affair with adult actress Stormy Daniels. Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty and disputes that the affair occurred.
A recent AP-NORC poll revealed that 35% believe Mr. Trump committed an illegal act in the case. Half indicated that if convicted, he wouldn’t be able to serve.
In the New York Times/Siena College poll, Mr. Biden is closing in on Mr. Trump, who had been ahead of the president in recent surveys.
The poll was taken between April 7 and 11, and Mr. Trump is currently only one percentage point ahead—46 to 45 percent—with eight percent saying they are undecided or declining to answer the question.
In late February, just before becoming the likely Republican presidential nominee, Mr. Trump led by 48 to 43 percent.
Mr. Trump’s lead appears to be shrinking as a larger share of people who supported Mr. Biden in 2020 switched sides; the president’s numbers with Democratic voters are rising.
In February, Mr. Trump had the support of 97% of his 2020 voters, while Mr. Biden received 83% of his 2020 votes.
These figures now stand at 94% for Mr. Trump and 89% for Mr. Biden.
Despite the fact that Democratic candidates received millions of popular votes, tens of thousands of votes in a small number of swing states decided the 2016 and 2020 elections.
While the race is narrowing, up to 64% of respondents believe the US is headed in the wrong direction, with nearly 80% saying the economy is fair or terrible.
