Susan Page

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans believe an outside, independent investigation is needed into the escalating controversy over alleged contacts between Russia and associates of Donald Trump during last year's presidential campaign, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds.

By 58%-35%, those surveyed support an independent inquiry, an idea backed by Democratic leaders and a handful of congressional Republicans who argue that a special prosecutor or bipartisan commission should be appointed. White House officials and leaders of the GOP-controlled House and Senate say an ongoing FBI investigation and oversight by congressional committees are sufficient.

The flap already has forced White House national security adviser Michael Flynn to resign, prompted Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself and overshadowed White House efforts to focus on policy initiatives and capitalize on good economic news. Positive headlines about President Trump's first speech to Congress on Tuesday were replaced a day later by reports that Sessions, who had testified during his Senate confirmation hearings that he hadn't met with Russian officials during the campaign, had sat down with the ambassador in his office in September.

The telephone poll of 1,000 registered voters, taken Wednesday through Sunday, has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

By an overwhelming 2-1, 63%-31%, Americans see the issue of Moscow's meddling in the presidential election as a serious issue. Close to half call it "very serious;" just one in five dismiss it as "not at all serious."

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Views differ significantly based on which TV news outlet the respondent trusts most, notes David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. "Among those voters who trust CNN, 89% said Russian meddling is serious and 94% of viewers want an independent investigation. Among voters trusting FOX News, 60% said it wasn't very or not at all serious and 67% said there shouldn't be an outside investigation."

There is also a partisan tilt. Democrats are united: Three-fourths call Russia meddling a "very serious" issue, and by an overwhelming 9-1 they endorse the idea of an outside, independent investigation.

Republicans are divided, a finding that could encourage GOP officials such as Arizona Sen. John McCain and Michigan Rep. Justin Amash who have pushed for more aggressive investigations. While a 55% majority of Republicans describe the issue as not particularly serious, four in 10 say it is serious. And 29% support an outside, independent investigation.

Among Trump's most fervent backers, those who strongly approve of the job he's doing as president, 21% back an outside investigation; 71% oppose it.

Both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have rejected the need to establish any sort of independent panel, noting that the House and Senate intelligence committees have launched investigations.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused reporters of unfair coverage of the Russian controversy and of Trump's new allegation, leveled on Twitter on Saturday without supportive evidence, that President Obama had tapped his phones in Trump Tower during the campaign. Officials who deny there was a wiretap "also said there's no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Trump administration or the Trump campaign in coordination, but that doesn't seem to matter to the media," she said on ABC's This Week. "That point gets continued to be ignored over and over again."

Democrats say crucial questions remain in a controversy they call a challenge to American democracy.

"Look, this is about did people in the Trump campaign or his business associates, the whole world surrounding Trump, did they collude with the Russians to attack our democracy?" Minnesota Sen. Al Franken said on ABC's This Week. "That is an enormous, an enormous issue. That's something we need to get to the bottom of. We need a special prosecutor."

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer questioned whether Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., would be willing to pursue an aggressive investigation. "If we have a special prosecutor, they will get to the bottom of all of this," he said on NBC's Meet the Press, "and that's what we need."