According to a freshly released Washington Post/ABC News survey, a solid majority of the American electorate thinks Donald Trump should face criminal charges for trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election (56 percent), for fomenting the January 6 riot (54 percent), and for his mishandling of classified information (54 percent). There’s a even a strong plurality (49 percent) who believe the criminal charges the twice-impeached ex-president is already facing in New York are appropriate and not politically motivated.
The same survey respondents say they would vote for Trump (49 percent) over Biden (42 percent) in 2024. In fact, 36 percent say they would “definitely” vote for Trump, while only 32 percent say that about Biden.
For context, the FiveThirtyEight average of polls, does not show any major slippage in Biden’s approval numbers, so this WaPo/ABC News survey looks like an outlier, at least for now.
What’s notable, however, is this idea that Trump should be in prison but maybe he should be reelected if the alternative is another four years with Biden at the helm. There’s clearly a sizable number of people who are holding these two thoughts in their head at the same time.
Maybe people just aren’t very honest when they answer surveys. I don’t really know how to explain results like this.
If you have any insights, leave them in the comments.
