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But this is some kind of vanity. Just because it’s interesting to us doesn’t mean it’s interesting to others. A CNN poll released Thursday found that only a quarter of voters want news about the campaign. A third pay little or no attention to it.
After all, even major developments often go unnoticed by the average American. A new YouGov poll shows that, on average, just over half of Americans are aware of the various legal challenges facing Mr. Trump. And are there any Republicans on whom he counts for political support? Consistently, only a few people say they know about his lawsuit and accusations.
YouGov presented eight legal scenarios to American adults to determine the public’s level of awareness. Two of the stories were made up: Trump faces charges related to emoluments and drug trafficking. Fortunately, less than a quarter of respondents said these legal threats actually exist.
The remaining six were real. The case most people are familiar with is the ongoing federal secrets case in Florida. Six in 10 Americans said they were aware of the incident. The least well-known case was a New York civil case in which a judge determined that he had fraudulently inflated the value of his assets. Just under 50 percent of Americans knew that.
But the pattern for Republicans is clear. At most, 45% of Republicans said they knew about the legal issues. Specifically, he was held responsible for the documents scandal and for allegedly assaulting author E. Jean Carroll. Only a quarter knew about the value inflation lawsuit, and only four in 10 knew about criminal charges in Manhattan related to hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Democrats were more likely to say they thought Trump could face criminal sanctions regarding his pay, which is not true. But it was still less than 50%.
On average, only 4 in 10 Republicans said they were aware of the real legal issues. On average, Democrats were more than 30 points more likely to say so.
Republican lawmakers often said they didn’t know whether the legal threats were real. However, even though many legal issues exist, more Republicans said, “No, there are no such legal issues” than said they did not know. This is a consistent fact. When asked about the charges, which center on fraudulent assessments and election certification, multiple Republican lawmakers said they were not aware of any issues.
We attribute this lack of familiarity to a disinterest in hearing negative information about Trump and, perhaps more importantly, a disinterest in conservative and right-wing media reporting on it. seems to be very safe. In May, the Washington Post investigated the extent to which Fox News covered the documents and the Daniels case compared to other cable news channels. It wasn’t that often.
This provides useful context for estimating the political impact of Trump’s trial. YouGov also released the results of a poll it conducted for Yahoo News this week examining other aspects of President Trump’s legal problems.
For example, polls have found that most Americans think a conviction in President Trump’s criminal trial would be a fair outcome. But among Republicans and those who say they voted for Trump in 2020, most would think such an outcome would be unfair. No wonder, given that most Republicans say they’ve never even heard of criminal justice.
These results are very similar to what YouGov got when it asked Americans whether they thought Trump’s indictment or President Biden’s age was a more important issue for presidential fitness. Approximately 4 out of 10 respondents selected each option.
It’s important to point out that the responses from independents are roughly in line with the overall numbers, which is common. This means only about half of independents are aware of Trump’s legal problems. That means potentially many Americans could suddenly learn the details of the charges if Trump is convicted.
It is the kind of thing that can have measurable political consequences.
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