Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup.

Poll(s) of the week:

It has been a little over two weeks since special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election was released, and so far the majority of Americans seem to think the report was both fair and accurate. But, as we’ll see, there is still deep disagreement about what Mueller’s findings actually show.

According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted in the week following the report’s release, 51 percent of Americans felt that the report was fair and even-handed while only 21 percent felt that it was not. What’s more, both Democrats and Republicans were equally likely to say the report was fair — 53 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Republicans said so. And a YouGov/Huffpost poll that was conducted right after the report was released found that just over 70 percent of both Democrats and Republicans thought the report was accurate — in each case, about 40 percent thought it was “very” accurate and about 30 percent thought it was “somewhat” accurate.

This may be related to an uptick in the number of Republicans who said they had favorable views of Mueller after March 24, when Attorney General William Barr released a four-page summary of Mueller’s findings. Pollsters like AP-NORC and Marist have found sharp upticks in the number of Republicans who said they thought the investigation was fair after the summary was released. And as you can see in the chart below, Republicans are now more likely to view Mueller’s work favorably — his job approval ratings are now almost equally high among members of either party, though as Republican opinion has gone up, some polls found Democratic opinion dropped slightly.

Much of this change in opinion happened right after Barr’s summary was released — so far, making the full report public does not seem to have shifted opinions about the investigation nearly as much as the summary did.

Moreover, while both Democrats and Republicans generally believe the report was accurate and fair, they don’t seem to agree on its contents, and their perceptions of whether Trump obstructed justice remain largely unchanged. The majority of Republicans believe that Trump did not obstruct justice, while the majority of Democrats believe that he did, according to a series of Washington Post polls, including the most recent one, one conducted after Barr’s summary was released, and one conducted while Mueller’s investigation was still ongoing. Democrats and Republicans also don’t agree on whether the report exonerates Trump. According to the most recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, 61 percent of Republicans and only 6 percent of Democrats think the Mueller report cleared Trump of all wrongdoing.

Opinions on obstruction haven’t changed much Responses by party to a question asking whether Americans believe Trump interfered with the Mueller investigation in a way that amounted to obstruction of justice Democrats Republicans yes no yes no August 2018 80% 10% 19% 71% March 2019 80 16 21 77 April 2019 81 10 13 77 Source: Washington Post/ABC and Washington Post/Schar School Polls

Partisans also disagree about what Congress should do now. When asked to choose between four possible next steps, a recent Marist poll found that only 27 percent of Democrats wanted to start impeachment proceedings while 56 percent preferred that Congress continue to investigate potential wrongdoing. The other two options were unpopular with Democrats: 6 percent said Congress should publicly reprimand the president, and 7 percent said that it should take no action. By contrast, 82 percent of Republicans in the poll wanted Congress to take no further action. And that April Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 56 percent of Americans think Congress should not begin impeachment proceedings, which is a 10-point jump from last August. A CNN poll conducted last week also found that a majority of Americans in both parties think Congress should look into why the Justice Department started the inquiry that led to Mueller’s investigation, an action Trump has called for.

Americans — and especially Republicans — seemed to gain faith in Mueller once the investigation ended and Barr’s summary was released, but public opinion does not seem to have changed much since the full report was released. There are still deep partisan divisions about what exactly the report revealed, what it means for the president, and what the path forward should be.

From ABC News:





AG Bill Barr: Mueller’s letter criticizing his summary of report ‘a bit snitty’

Other polling bites

Trump approval

According to FiveThirtyEight’s presidential approval tracker, 41.8 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 53.1 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of -11.3 points). At this time last week, 41.5 percent approved and 53.1 percent disapproved (for a net approval rating of -11.6 points). One month ago, Trump had an approval rating of 41.9 percent and a disapproval rating of 52.8 percent, for a net approval rating of -10.9 points.

Check out our 2020 polls tracker.