In Republican circles, it’s a foregone conclusion that Donald Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in New York is a transparent partisan sham. It’s not unusual for the former president’s GOP allies to argue that “everyone knows” the case has no merit.
But what Republicans tell themselves about public attitudes doesn’t exactly line up with public-opinion research on the matter.
The latest national poll from Quinnipiac University, for example, asked respondents about the trial and the charges of falsifying business records, including a hush money payment to a porn star. A combined total of 60% of the public said they consider the charges either “very” or “somewhat” serious, though that probably wasn’t the result that raised eyebrows at Mar-a-Lago.
In other words, as Trump insists he did absolutely nothing wrong in this criminal case, only about a fifth of the public believes him.
This is roughly consistent with the latest national survey from the Pew Research Center, the results of which were also released this week. It found that 45% of Americans believe that Trump’s actions were illegal, while an additional 15% see the Republican’s actions as wrong but not illegal. Only 23% agreed with the former president’s contention that he did not nothing wrong.
This data comes on the heels of the latest national New York Times/Siena College poll, conducted shortly before the trial began in earnest, and which asked respondents, “Thinking about the investigations into Donald Trump, do you think that Donald Trump has or has not committed any serious federal crimes?”
A 54% majority said the presumptive GOP nominee has committed serious crimes, while 37% said the opposite.
The same poll asked, “Regardless of whether you think Donald Trump did this, do you think the charges that he falsified business records related to hush money payments made to the porn star Stormy Daniels are very serious, somewhat serious, not too serious or not at all serious?”
A combined 58% majority said they consider the criminal charges serious, and a 46% plurality said they believe Trump should be found guilty, as opposed to 36% who want to see the suspected felon found not guilty.
To be sure, there are significant partisan differences in the results, and much of the Republican Party’s base has accepted the former president’s defenses at face value.
But if Trump and his allies believe they’ve convinced the great American mainstream that he’s an innocent man who shouldn’t be on trial, there’s ample evidence to the contrary.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com