Almost 2 in 3 Republicans say Trump should be reelected even if found guilty: poll

Almost two in three Republicans said former President Trump should be reelected even if he is found guilty of a crime, according to a new poll. 

An NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll released Tuesday found that 63 percent of Republicans, and 27 percent of all U.S. adults, said Trump should be president again even if he is convicted of the current or potential charges he is facing. 

Four in 10 Republican-leaning independents said Trump should be reelected regardless of the legal challenges, while just more than half said he should not. More than three-quarters of independents who do not lean toward one party and nearly all Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said Trump should not serve as president again. 

An NBC News poll released Sunday also found that two-thirds of Republican primary voters are continuing to support Trump and are not concerned about his electability. 

Trump became the first former president to be indicted last month in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into a hush-money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. 

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen has said he made the payment at Trump’s direction for Daniels to remain silent about an affair she and the former president had years prior. 

Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment but has denied having an affair with Daniels. Prosecutors charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to the payment. 

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

The former president is also facing investigations by Special Counsel Jack Smith into his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and the storing of classified and sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Fla. 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is probing efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia and indicated that she would announce any charges stemming from her investigation between July 11 and Sept. 1. 

Pollsters found 23 percent of Republicans said Trump should drop out of the race for president in 2024 because of the felony charges filed against him in Manhattan, while 87 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of independents said the same. 

Overall, 58 percent of adults and 57 percent of registered voters said Trump should drop out, while 41 percent of each said he should not. 

The poll was conducted from April 17 to 19 among 1,291 U.S. adults. The margin of error was 3.4 points.