Following President Donald Trump’s intelligence disclosure, voters have limited faith in his ability to “handle highly classified national security information,” according to the poll. | Getty Poll: Voters back Russia special prosecutor

Voters are applauding the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election and any connections to Donald Trump’s campaign.

But, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, voters aren’t ready to begin the constitutional process of impeaching the president and removing him from office.


Nearly two-thirds of voters, 63 percent, either “strongly” or “somewhat” agree with the Justice Department’s decision to appoint former FBI Director Robert Mueller to oversee the Russia probe, the poll shows. Only 21 percent of voters disagree with the decision to appoint a special counsel.

The vast majority of Democratic voters, 80 percent, support the decision to appoint an outside prosecutor — but so do half of Republicans and 58 percent of independents.

On impeachment, 38 percent of voters want Congress to begin the process of removing Trump from office. A plurality, 46 percent, do not want impeachment proceedings against Trump. Sixteen percent of voters don’t know or have no opinion.

Most Democratic lawmakers have discounted the possibility that Congress will work actively to remove Trump, at least given the current state of the investigation. But Democratic voters are more eager to move forward, the poll shows: More than two-thirds, 68 percent, want Congress to begin impeachment proceedings now.

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Comparatively, only 12 percent of GOP voters and 33 percent of independents want Congress to launch impeachment efforts.

"The Democratic base is not taking allegations against President Trump lightly," said Morning Consult Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer Kyle Dropp. "Sixty-eight percent of Democrats think Congress should begin impeachment hearings. Furthermore, 48 percent of Democrats think that investigating Trump and Russia should be the number one priority for Congress."

The poll, conducted last Thursday through Monday, comes after a string of negative press coverage for Trump — with much of it surrounding the Russia investigation and Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

Voters are recoiling at some of these scandals, the poll shows. A 56-percent majority calls Trump sharing highly classified national security information with Russian government figures in the Oval Office “inappropriate,” while only 19 percent say Trump’s disclosure was “appropriate.”

Following Trump’s intelligence disclosure, voters have limited faith in his ability to “handle highly classified national security information,” according to the poll. Only 43 percent feel “very” or “somewhat” confident in Trump’s ability to handle classified information, while 51 percent say they are “not too confident” or “not confident at all.”

The poll also shows voters tilting against Trump firing Comey: 33 percent say his decision was appropriate, while 41 percent say it was inappropriate — roughly equal to a week ago.

Trump and his aides have provided different explanations for why the president dismissed Comey, but more voters believe he “wanted to hinder the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s alleged involvement in the 2016 presidential election” (47 percent) than think Trump “no longer believed … Comey was fit to lead the FBI” (34 percent).





"Our latest polling finds that Americans are not only divided in how to react to the latest news out of Washington, they're divided over what the news is," said Dropp. "For example, 76 percent of Democrats think President Trump fired FBI Director Comey to hinder the Russia investigation, while just 17% of Republicans agree."

The poll was conducted prior to Monday’s bombing of a pop music concert in England, but it does show voters divided sharply on Trump’s ability to “keep the country safe from terrorism.” Forty-eight percent say they are “very” or “somewhat” confident in Trump, but 47 percent are “not too confident” or “not confident at all.”

Views of Trump’s ability to keep Americans safe from terrorism fall along partisan lines. Eighty-five percent of Republicans are very or somewhat confident in Trump, but only 17 percent of Democratic voters are. Among independents, 44 percent are very or somewhat confident, and 49 percent are not too confident or not confident at all.

The poll does show a slight bump in Trump’s approval rating, which ticked up to 45 percent from 41 percent late last week. But half of voters still disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president.

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll surveyed 1,938 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: http://politi.co/2rf5gWM | Crosstabs: http://politi.co/2rOdstZ