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After Donald Trump was indicted by federal prosecutors, most Republicans treated the developments as an all-hands-on-deck moment. The scramble was on to convince the public that the charges against the former president were illegitimate and worthy of Americans’ scorn, despite the dramatic evidence presented in the unsealed indictment.
It was an open question as to whether the rhetorical push would work. The latest national Quinnipiac poll suggests it has not:
- A combined 65% of Americans believe the charges against Trump are either very or somewhat serious.
- 60% of Americans believe the former president acted inappropriately in the way he handled classified documents after leaving the White House. (The poll found that 1 in 4 Republican voters agree.)
- 60% of Americans believe Trump has left serious questions about the scandal unanswered.
- A narrow 51% majority of Americans agree that Trump should be prosecuted.
To be sure, the results weren’t all bad for the Republican: The Quinnipiac poll found that most Americans agreed that politics have played at least some role in the case.
But those assumptions — which do not appear to have any basis in fact — do not negate the other findings. In other words, most of the country has effectively said, “Politics probably contributed to Trump’s indictment, but it’s a serious prosecution anyway.”
Circling back to our earlier coverage, these results were hardly inevitable. In fact, I wasn’t necessarily expecting them. For months, there’s been a noticeable asymmetry to the public conversation: One side of the political divide has flooded the airwaves with vitriol, insisting an indictment would be proof of a corrupt Justice Department and an unjust system, while the other side has been largely circumspect, saying very little about the suspect, the process and his alleged crimes.
Given this, Americans have generally only heard one side of the argument. As Republicans have screamed bloody murder in defense of Trump, Democrats have largely responded with “Anyone want to talk about infrastructure and the importance of reproductive rights?”
Indeed, it’s no secret that the Biden White House made a deliberate decision to stay silent — and the party directed congressional Democrats to bite their tongues, too.
With only one side of the political divide engaged in the public conversation, it seemed plausible that much of the public would believe GOP talking points, despite their absurdities, because it was the only rhetoric Americans were hearing.
And yet, despite this asymmetry, the polling evidence suggests the public didn’t buy what Republicans were selling after Trump’s first indictment, and GOP rhetoric isn’t proving persuasive in the wake of his second indictment, either.
This post revises our related earlier coverage.