Gallup chief: Americans have ‘dismissed’ idea that Trump acted illegally with Russia

Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport said on Tuesday that Americans have come to reject the idea that President Trump did anything criminal with regards to Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

“A lot of Americans have kind of dismissed the idea that he [Trump] colluded to the extent that he did something illegal,” Newport told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.” 

“A lot more Americans would say he did something wrong, but it wasn’t illegal,” he continued. 

Newport was referring to a Gallup poll released last week that found that only 29 percent of respondents said they believed Trump acted illegally concerning Russian involvement during the 2016 campaign. 

Twenty-seven percent said Trump acted unethically but did nothing illegal, while 35 percent said he did not do anything seriously wrong. 

The same survey also found that 31 percent of those polled said the president acted illegally with regards to nondisclosure payments to women who claim to have had affairs with him. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said Trump acted unethically but not illegally in the payments, and 23 percent said he did nothing seriously wrong. 

Russia’s election meddling and the alleged payments have been thorns in Trump’s side for months. 

Special counsel Robert Mueller has secured indictments, guilty pleas or convictions from a series of Russian nationals and former Trump campaign officials in his probe, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. 

— Julia Manchester