Poll: Some Republicans find Russian help in midterms ‘appropriate’

A new poll finds double-digit support among Republicans for Russia interfering in the U.S. midterm elections to try to help Republicans keep control of Congress in the fall.

A Yahoo Finance–SurveyMonkey poll released Tuesday finds that 11 percent of Republican or GOP-leaning Americans surveyed said it is “appropriate” for Russia to try to help Republicans, while 29 percent said it’s “not appropriate, but wouldn’t be a big deal.”

{mosads}A majority of Republicans, 55 percent, called it “not appropriate and it would be a big deal” for Russia to try to help Republicans keep control of Congress in November.

On the Democratic side, 14 percent of Democrats said it either would be appropriate or “wouldn’t be a big deal” for Russia to intervene on behalf of Democrats. Eighty-six percent called it “not appropriate” and “major” for Russia to try to help Democrats.

Among all respondents, 72 percent said they are strongly opposed to Russia helping Republicans in the 2018 elections, and 77 percent said they are strongly opposed to Russians lending a hand to the Democrats.

Multiple top Trump administration officials have confirmed that Moscow is conspiring to meddle in the upcoming midterm elections after U.S. intelligence agencies said that Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Last week, the Daily Beast reported that Russian intelligence agents targeted Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) with an attempted breach ahead of the midterms. 

Facebook on Tuesday also revealed a new coordinated disinformation campaign on its platform ahead of the fall elections, saying it removed more than two dozen accounts across Facebook and Instagram involved in “inauthentic behavior.”

President Trump last week suggested he was “concerned” that the Kremlin would attempt to meddle in the midterms to elect Democrats.

At a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wanted Trump to win the 2016 presidential election.

“Yes, I did, because he was the one who wanted to normalize relations with Russia,” Putin said. 

The Yahoo Finance–SurveyMonkey poll surveyed 2,509 Americans from July 25 to 27.