Politics

Poll: More Americans Believe Trump Than Doubt Him When He Says His Campaign Was Spied On

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Phillip Stucky Contributor
Font Size:

More Americans believe that President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign was spied on than don’t, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll published Wednesday.

The survey revealed that 38% of American voters believe President Donald Trump when he claims that his campaign was spied on by the Obama administration, compared to only 28% of voters who don’t believe him. An additional 35% either don’t know or have no opinion on the matter. (RELATED: Blowback From Spying On Trump Campaign Will Eclipse Russiagate, Geraldo Rivera Says)

The majority of voters have heard of the issue to some extent: 26% of respondents reported they heard or read “a lot” about Attorney General William Barr’s claim about spying; 32% reported they had seen or heard “some” reporting on the issue; 20% reported they hadn’t seen or heard much about it; and 21% confessed to not knowing anything about the comments, or Trump’s assertion.

The poll came after Barr claimed last week that spying did occur on the campaign.

“I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” he claimed. Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen pushed back, asking if the attorney general believed that spying did actually happen.

“I think spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was predicated, adequately predicated,” Barr said. “I’m not suggesting it wasn’t adequately predicated, but I need to explore that.”

It was later revealed that Barr commissioned a team of FBI agents to investigate whether or not the agency spied on the Trump campaign, according to a report from Fox News.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asserted that Barr’s arguments were “stunning and scary” in an interview with Anderson Cooper last week.

“I thought it was both stunning and scary. I was amazed at that and rather disappointed that the attorney general would say such a thing. The term ‘spying’ has all kinds of negative connotations and I have to believe he chose that term deliberately,” Clapper said during the interview.

Morning Consult surveyed 1,998 registered voters nationwide from April 12 through April 14. The poll had a margin of error of 2 percentage points in either direction.