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It’s Tuesday, the traditional day for elections and for our pause-and-consider newsletter on politics and policy. We think of it as a mini-magazine in your inbox.
SUPPORT FOR TRUMP HOLDS STEADY
By Laura Santhanam, @LauraSanthanam
Health Reporter & Coordinating Producer for Polling
As former President Donald Trump’s legal troubles mount, there has been little overall shift in public opinion about whether he has done something wrong.
But according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll, Republican faith in Trump’s faultlessness has shown signs of dwindling this summer.
A majority of Republicans – 58 percent – say they still plan to vote for Trump, according to this latest poll, conducted July 24 to 27. That was before new charges were brought against Trump in the case focused on his handling of classified documents. And a majority of Republican primary voters have dismissed the criminal and civil allegations, investigations, indictments and trials involving Trump as being politically motivated, regardless of the evidence gathered against him, said Republican strategist Douglas Heye.
But taken together, Trump’s legal difficulties may be weighing him down among some voters within his own party. Thirty-seven percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said if Trump continues to run for president, they are likely to support another candidate, up from 32 percent in mid-June.
The percentage of respondents overall who feel Trump has done nothing wrong is also diminishing.
The poll found that:
- About half of U.S. adults think Trump has done something illegal. That includes most Democrats and a slim majority of independents.
- At the same time, roughly a quarter of Americans think Trump has acted unethically, but not illegally.
- Another 19 percent said Trump has done nothing wrong, which has shrunk from about a quarter of Americans last month.
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Image by Jenna Cohen/PBS NewsHour
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The Department of Justice’s superseding indictment Thursday contained additional federal charges against Trump, including obstruction and willful retention of national defense information, as part of the investigation into classified documents at the former president’s Florida estate. A Mar-a-Lago employee, Carlos De Oliveira, was also indicted for conspiring with Trump and his aide, Walt Nauta, to delete surveillance footage during the investigation.
These latest charges add to Trump’s mounting legal challenges. He’s involved in four major criminal probes that are investigating:
Trump has already been indicted on dozens of felony charges in two of those cases. He continues to deny any wrongdoing, which allows “him to reinforce his core message — that the system’s rigged,” Republican strategist Douglas Heye said.
The bottom line: Republicans are split over the gravity of Trump’s actions.
Trump supporters “haven’t really spent a lot of time with any of the evidence because they don’t want to,” Republican strategist Whit Ayres said.
Support among Trump’s core base likely won’t change unless a Republican presidential contender confronts Trump, or he is challenged in debates, Heye added.
Trump has succeeded in turning his legal problems into political cash. The Trump campaign has said they have raised millions of dollars after every indictment.
“Republican voters like Trump, and they see him as somebody who is still a strong, if not the strongest, candidate in 2024,” said Amy Walter, editor of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. “Whether or not there are more indictments that come out, it is doubtful that they will do anything to diminish that feeling among Republicans.” |
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More on politics from our coverage:
- Read: The new charges — and a new defendant — added to the classified documents case against Trump.
- One Big Question: Is a Trump nomination inevitable at this point? A Republican pollster weighs in.
- A Closer Look: Domestic violence victims don’t always get equal protection under the law when they defend themselves. We spoke with Liz Flock, the host of the podcast “Blind Plea.”
- Perspectives: Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart and Washington Post contributor Gary Abernathy discuss Trump’s latest legal troubles and the health of U.S. leadership.
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VIVEK RAMASWAMY ON TAKING TRUMP’S AGENDA ONE STEP FURTHER
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Watch the segment in the player above.
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By Matt Loffman, @mattloff
Politics Producer
The race for the Republican presidential nomination is, in a word, crowded. There are governors, a senator and a former president with a growing list of legal troubles.
Then there’s Vivek Ramaswamy, a first-time candidate who has spent millions of his own money to capture the attention of GOP voters. Although the 37-year-old is trailing Trump by more than 40 points in most polls, he’s still registering ahead of many of his competitors who have more political experience.
The former tech and finance CEO discussed his campaign last week with the PBS NewsHour’s Lisa Desjardins, saying he’s “best positioned to advance our ‘America First’ agenda” — billed as “America First 2.0” on his official campaign website — and take it further than Trump did. Experts have pushed back on some of Ramaswamy’s extreme policy proposals, such raising the voting age to 25 unless certain requirements are completed, like a civics test. (The latter, advocates said, recalled Jim Crow laws.)
“I think we live in an interesting moment today in the year 2023. I think it's a 1776 moment. If you want incremental reform, there are plenty of other candidates who promise to offer that,” Ramaswamy said. “I stand on the side of revolution, the American Revolution, reviving those 1776 ideals today,” including “shutting down the administrative state,” reviving national pride in the next generation and growing the economy. |
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More on the 2024 race from our coverage:
- Watch: 4 things to know about Vivek Ramaswamy, a political outsider and Trump supporter.
- Read: The Associated Press debunks some of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s contradictory statements.
- Candidate watch: Chris Christie, who announced his 2024 run in June, explains why he’s an alternative to Trump, his former boss.
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#POLITICSTRIVIA
By Cybele Mayes-Osterman, @CybeleMO
Associate Editorial Producer
All eyes are on the looming special counsel case investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including the Jan. 6 attack.
Trump has been indicted twice this year, in cases examining his handling of classified documents and hush money payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign, making him the first former president to face indictment on criminal charges.
But history holds plenty of precedent for highest-office hopefuls running while under indictment.
Our question: Not counting Trump or this upcoming election cycle, who was the last GOP candidate for president to run while under indictment?
Send your answers to [email protected] or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.
Last week, we asked: A proposed amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act is modeled after an act that aimed to declassify information about which major event in American history?
The answer: The assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Congress passed the 1992 law, known as the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, nearly 30 years after the president’s death. It mandated that all government records related to the event “should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination.”
Congratulations to our winners: Tom Holston and Beverley Chang!
Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.
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