More than half of Americans believe Trump tried to stay in office illegally: poll
More than half of Americans believe that former President Trump attempted to remain in office illegally, according to a new poll.
The new CBS News poll found that 51 percent of Americans think that Trump tried to stay in office beyond his term through "illegal and unconstitutional" means. Twenty-nine percent said he tried to stay in office using legal means and 20 percent said the former president did not attempt to stay in office.
The poll was conducted after Trump was indicted on four federal charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Fifty-four percent of respondents said that if Trump tried to overturn the election, they would consider it as undermining democracy. Seventeen percent said they would consider it as upholding democracy and 28 percent responded with neither.
Most Americans — about 59 percent — said that the investigations into Trump and the indictments against him are efforts to stop his 2024 presidential campaign. Fifty-seven percent said that they were to uphold the rule of law and 52 percent said they were to defend democracy.
More than a third of Americans said the investigations and indictments were personal, with 56 percent of Republicans saying that they were an attack on people like them, a familiar phrase Trump has echoed at his rallies. When polled among MAGA and non-MAGA Republicans, 77 percent of MAGA Republicans said the investigations and indictments were an attack on them compared to 42 percent of non-MAGA Republicans.
Republicans were also more likely than Democrats to say the investigations and indictments are an effort to stop Trump's 2024 campaign, with 86 percent of Republicans sayings so and just 31 percent of Democrats. On the other hand, Democrats were more likely to say that the investigations and indictments are upholding the rule of law and defending democracy.
The CBS News/YouGov poll was conducted among 2,145 U.S. adults interviewed between August 2 to 4 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.