52% Say Clintons Should Be Part of Russia Probe

Voters are closely divided on the importance of Congress investigating whether Russia interfered with the last election, but if it does, they think the Clintons’ ties to the Russians should be part of the probe.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters think Congress should expand its investigation of any possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Forty-five percent (45%) say Congress’ time would be better spent dealing with economic and other policy issues instead. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

However, 52% believe Bill and Hillary Clinton’s private dealings with Russian officials should be included in the FBI and congressional investigation of the Trump campaign. Thirty-five percent (35%) disagree, but 13% are not sure.

As always these days, party affiliation seems to be a big deciding factor. Seventy percent (70%) of Democrats think Congress should expand its investigation of any possible links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, but only 28% of Republicans agree. Yet while 69% of GOP voters say the Clintons should be tossed into the investigative mix, only 37% of Democrats like that idea.

Voters not affiliated with either major party favor expanding the congressional investigation by a 50% to 44% margin. Fifty-one percent (51%) of these voters think the Clintons should be part of the probe; 33% disagree.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on March 30 and April 2, 2017 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

In mid-December, Democrats, still searching for a reason for Hillary Clinton’s loss to Republican Donald Trump, blamed the Russians, but other voters didn’t see it that way.

The older the voter, the more likely he or she is to say Congress would be better served focusing on economic and other policy issues.

Men agree more than women that Congress should focus on economic and policy issues. But men are much more supportive of including the Clintons in any Russia probe than women are.

Among voters who think Congress should expand its investigation of any possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, only 36% believe the Clintons should be part of that probe. Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters who believe Congress should focus instead on economic and other policy issues say the Clintons also should be investigated.

Voters show more faith in Congress now than they ever did during the Obama years.

Just after the election, 48% of voters said the election results were more a vote against Clinton than a vote for Trump. Thirty-five percent (35%) said they were more a vote for Trump, but 16% were not sure.

Sixty-three percent (63%) said in April 2015 that it’s likely some actions Clinton took as secretary of State were influenced by donations made to the Clinton Foundation. 

Most voters think Russia is a likely influence on Trump’s foreign policy but also tend to view critics of fallen National Security Adviser Michael Flynn as more interested in scoring political points than in U.S. national security. The president asked for Flynn’s resignation because the latter did not fully disclose all his private contacts with Russian officials.

Voters now regard Russia as a bigger long-term threat to the United States than China. Republicans are more confident than Democrats and unaffiliateds, though, that the U.S.-Russia relationship will improve. 

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only. 

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