Independents taking survey outnumber partisans; but the opinions on Cohen hearing were still sharply divided

One of the more surprising things coming out of our informal, online survey about the Michael Cohen hearing? Finding that so many people don’t identify themselves as Republicans or Democrats.

We opened up the survey the morning after Cohen, once President Donald Trump’s personal attorney and “fixer,” testified and told all publicly before the House Oversight Committee. Cohen admitted he had lied in the past and he’s going to prison in the near future ... so plenty of controversy about credibility.

In the meantime, we had 167 respondents to our survey by Friday morning – 31 percent of them Republicans; 31 percent Democrats; 39 percent identifying as independents, unaffiliated or other.

Not surprisingly, most people thought the hearings were very important (49 percent) or moderately interesting (28 percent), while 23 percent said they weren’t interested.

Then we asked, “How believable did you find Cohen to be?” The largest group, 47 percent, checked “I believe what he said.” Another 15 percent said they had to take what he said with at least a grain of salt. And 31 percent of us checked “I don’t believe what he said.”

We asked, “How did the hearing come off for the president?” and 55 percent of respondents clicked “I think the hearing reduced President Trump’s credibility.” Another 30 percent said it had no effect. And 14 percent clicked on, “If anything, it improved the President’s credibility.”

We wondered how Republican committee members performed and 29 percent said they did well; 26 percent “mediocre”; and 38 percent said they came off poorly.

Democratic members? 40 percent said they came off well; 29 percent said mediocre; 31 percent said poorly.

And then ... we asked for any general observations, comments and predictions. People had a lot to say. Much of it sharply divided from party to party. Here is a small sampling of the comments left behind:

– Dems don’t like Trump. They will investigate until he leaves office. Once an investigation is complete, Dems will launch an investigation on the investigation. That’s how this game is played.

– A convicted liar telling more lies. This meeting was a disgrace to our political system.

– Republicans appeared as angry amateurs bent on savaging Cohen with the same ugly and repeated phrases. Some of the Democrats were not effective questioners. However representatives like Katie Hill were focused and probative.

– The foundation has been laid to demonstrate that Trump has consistently lied about his financial dealings and his payoffs to women. Trump’s moral authority has been severely weakened and his political power will wane.

– This is a big production for nothing. Nothing will come of it, just like all the other BS the Dems have pulled over the last two years. Cohen is a convicted liar and was also recently disbarred because of his conviction. Parading him up there in this hearing just shows how desperate and pathetic the Dems truly are.

– The Republicans shamed themselves. For one, they did not ask one question about Trump. I thought that was the object of the hearing.

– I anxiously await additional subpoenas for those named by Mr. Cohen who would have additional information on many topics. I predict that history will not be kind to Trump and those who have enabled him ...

– The timing of the “hearing” was terrible and it certainly seemed to be held on the same day as Trump was going to take part in talks with Kim. There was no reason the hearing could have not been postponed to a date that did not make the President look weak while trying to denuclearize North Korea. May have been a reason the talks broke down.

– Only a couple of the panel members asked questions that I would have expected in any normal investigation. It was more about personal feelings than actually getting to the heart of the problem.

– American political drama has become a sad circus and I’m afraid we look more like a banana republic than the nation that is leader of the free world.

– Glad this type of behavior is behind us.