News/Commentary

‘In the interest of national unity’: Majority of voters believe Trump should be pardoned if convicted

June 18, 2023 | | Print Article

A new survey shows that, by a small majority, most voters believe that, should former President Donald Trump be convicted of mishandling classified documents, he should receive a presidential pardon.

The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll surveyed a total of 2,090 registered voters and was conducted June 14 – 15, just days after Trump was indicted on 37 felony charges and arraigned at a Miami courthouse.

Among Republican voters, the poll found that 75% believe, despite his legal challenges, that Trump will win the GOP nomination.

And, while 59% of voters — including 63% of Independents and 30% of Democrats — “have doubts” about President Joe Biden’s mental fitness — and 66% believe he is “too old to be President” — 62% of Democratic voters still say they’d vote for him in the presidential primary.

Were the 2024 election to be held today, 45% of voters say Trump would be back in the White House, compared to 39% who believe Biden would win a second term.

Having said that, a whopping 69% of voters say America needs “another choice.”

Indeed, 62% of voters say Biden should bow out of the race and 55% would rather not see Trump run again.

When it comes to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against the former president, 58% of respondents said the federal prosecutors has either a “very strong case” (32%) or a “somewhat strong case” (26%). The remaining voters were split evenly between “somewhat weak” and “very weak,” at 21% each.

When asked for their own views of the indictment, 44% (72% of Democrats and 15% of Republicans) said they believed that Trump “is probably guilty of the charges and should be convicted,” while 30% (13%, Dems; 48%, GOP) said, “He is probably innocent” and “should be acquitted.”

Interestingly, more than a quarter of voters said, “He may be guilty of the charges but should not have been indicted because it is too political and interferes with the 2024 election.” That number includes 37% of the responding Republicans.

Though 55% percent of those surveyed believe the indictment was “valid” (as opposed to “politically motivate”), 56%, including 32% of the Democrats, said they considered the indictment to be “an interference by the Department of Justice in the 2024 elections.”

Read that again: More than half of this nation, regardless of their party affiliation or personal feelings for Donald Trump, believe the DOJ has already interfered with the upcoming presidential election.

According to 51% of the voters, the indictment is, nonetheless, a reason for Trump to withdraw from the race, while 49% want him to continue his campaign. And when asked if they believed the indictment would help or hurt the GOP frontrunner, the voters were spit right down the middle at 50% – 50%.

Ultimately, however, 57% of voters (82% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats) believe Trump will be acquitted of the charges against him.

If he is “convicted and sentenced to jail for his handling of classified documents,” just over half of the voters polled believe Trump should receive a presidential pardon “in the interest of national unity.”

Unsurprisingly, 70% of Democrats oppose this plan, while 80% of Republicans support it. Independent voters are split, with 48% supporting a pardon and 52% opposing it.

Speaking of polls, a new Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll shows that seven in ten voters, including almost half of Democrats, believe Biden is too old for the job. And 52% of all voters believe they are worse off since he became president.

Here’s a complete breakdown of the results:

Photo Source: Daily Mail
Melissa Fine
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