Mueller report findings upend partisan views of investigation
Majority no longer favors continuing House inquiry
Americans are split over whether House Democrats should continue to investigate President Donald Trump after special counsel Robert Mueller made no determination about whether he attempted to obstruct justice during the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a Washington Post-Schar School poll finds.
The division marks a clear break from public support for Russia-related investigations at the start of the year, when an overall majority supported House Democrats’ efforts to examine whether Trump’s subordinates conspired with Russia as well as Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Six House panels are digging into aspects of Trump’s campaign, his finances and his efforts to discredit Mueller’s inquiry as a “witch hunt,” while they wrestle with Attorney General William Barr for access to Mueller’s full report and the underlying evidence that informed his conclusions. Mueller did not find that Trump or his campaign conspired with Russia in 2016.
An overwhelming 83 percent say the Mueller report should be made public in its entirety, and 57 percent say Barr — who described some of Mueller’s principal findings in a letter to Congress this month — has not released enough details about the report.
The Post-Schar School national poll, conducted Tuesday through Friday, underscores how much the political dynamics surrounding Mueller’s report have changed between when it was a work in progress and its completion just over one week ago.
Nearly 8 in 10 Republicans say they feel “satisfied” with the investigation’s conclusions, a strikingly positive assessment for a group that widely disapproved of Mueller’s handling of the investigation just last month.
Among Democrats, who long expressed faith in Mueller during the inquiry, 53 percent now say they are disappointed with its conclusions. And while most still approve of Mueller’s efforts, more than 6 in 10 Democrats do not accept his finding on whether Trump conspired with Russia.
Over the course of Mueller’s 22-month investigation, and as the special counsel racked up indictments of individuals in Trump’s inner circle, many Democrats in public office had expressed confidence that the inquiry would reveal something crippling about Trump, and were as shocked as once-skeptical Republicans were elated when Barr delivered Mueller’s principal conclusions.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the end of the investigation has done little to shake partisans’ convictions about Trump’s guilt or innocence. A 76 percent majority of Democrats thinks Trump committed serious wrongdoing related to Russian election interference or the investigation that followed, including nearly two-thirds who say he committed a crime. Separately, 8 in 10 Democrats think Trump tried to hinder the Russia investigation and committed obstruction of justice in the process.
Among Republicans, 15 percent think Trump committed serious wrongdoing, while 21 percent think he obstructed justice. Independents are split about evenly on both questions, with just under half both faulting Trump for serious wrongdoing and saying he obstructed justice.
The partisan split in public sentiment suggests that there is little incentive for lawmakers on Capitol Hill to alter their current positions as congressional investigations continue. Democrats have refused to accept Barr’s statement of Mueller’s principal conclusions as the exoneration that Republicans claim it is, rejecting the attorney general’s assessment that the evidence of obstruction Mueller uncovered was uncompelling.
Americans are skeptical of Trump’s claim of “complete and total exoneration” by the investigation’s conclusions, in contrast with Mueller’s description that while the report “does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him” on the issue of obstruction. By 61 percent to 32 percent, more Americans believe Mueller than Trump on this issue.
Mueller’s findings have done little to affect how the public feels about impeaching Trump. The poll finds a 54 percent majority saying Congress should not begin impeachment hearings, only a slight shift from a January Post-ABC poll. The share of Democrats wanting to impeach Trump stands at 61 percent, little changed from 64 percent in January. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had largely dismissed the prospect before Mueller finished his report.