Last Tuesday, the third indictment was brought against former and potentially future President Donald Trump, this time for his role in the events on and leading up to January 6, 2021. Criticism abounds for how Special Counsel Jack Smith and President Joe Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) have handled the charges, especially as it pertains to election interference leading up to the 2024 presidential election, with Trump being the current frontrunner and most likely opponent for Biden next year. Given that the charges have to do with the 2020 election, however, it's also worth examining the indictment from that perspective as well.
On Sunday, CBS News released the findings of their poll on the matter. One takeaway from the poll is whether or not Trump tried to stay in office through illegal or legal means. "In the days and weeks right after the 2020 election, Donald Trump and some members of his team," the question was phrased, asking Americans to choose what response they most agreed with. Fifty-one percent said he "[p]lanned to stay in the presidency through illegal and unconstitutional activities," while 29 percent said he "[p]lanned to stay in the presidency through legal and constitutional processes." Twenty percent said he did not try to stay in office.
A slightly larger majority, at 54 percent of respondents, said Trump was "undermining democracy." Seventeen percent say he was "upholding democracy," while 28 percent say "neither."
Half the nation believes Trump tried to stay in office beyond his term through illegal and unconstitutional means.
— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) August 6, 2023
To most, such an effort would mean undermining democracy.
Just under a third thinks he was trying to stay in office through legal means. Most of this group believes… pic.twitter.com/X41AUwTkQc
As a tweet from the CBS News poll and the poll's write-up highlighted as one of the takeaways mentioned, most of those who believe Trump tried to stay in office through legal means, which includes most Republicans, believe Trump's claim that the 2020 election was illegitimate.
When it comes to such a finding, 35 percent of overall respondents believe that Biden is not the legitimate winner. However, 68 percent of Republicans say that he is not.
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Speaking of a narrative about "undermining democracy," the poll does also look to what the charges mean for 2024. While a majority, at 59 percent, believe that the indictments and investigations are "trying to stop Trump from campaigning," majorities also believe that they are "upholding the rule of law" and "defending democracy," at 57 percent and 52 percent, respectively.
Overall, 35 percent of respondents believe the indictments and investigations are "an attack on people like you," but that number is at 56 percent when it comes to Republicans. Trump himself has pointed out that he is being targeted as the face of everyday Americans. "IT IS A GREAT HONOR, BECAUSE I AM BEING ARRESTED FOR YOU," his TruthSocial post ahead of last Thursday's arraingment read, in part.
Most Americans describe the multiple indictments against Trump as "upholding the rule of law" and "defending democracy." https://t.co/JOHHzV6Buw
— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) August 6, 2023
Most also think they are an effort to stop Trump's 2024 campaign, boosted by Reps who are very likely to think so.
(but some Dem say… pic.twitter.com/URKjiPjN3J
Some differences within the GOP:
— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) August 6, 2023
It's MAGA-identifiers who see the indictments as an attack on people like them.
But nearly all Reps feel the indictments are an attempt to stop Trump's 2024 campaign. pic.twitter.com/JvUmKOOTbT
The poll also examined further the sentiments of those Republicans who said the indictments were "trying to stop Trump campaign" and were "an attack on people like you." A whopping 91 percent of MAGA Republicans and 83 percent of non-MAGA Republicans said it did. More than two-thirds, at 77 percent, of MAGA Republicans said it was an attack on people like them, while the number went down to 42 percent among non-MAGA Republicans.
During Sunday's edition of CBS News' "Face the Nation," CBS News Elections and Surveys Director Anthony Salvanto spoke to host Major Garrett in part about such a point.
"There's another echo of Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric in here, and that is this personal connection. Most Republicans, especially most MAGA Republicans, also see these indictments as an attack on people like them. And they also see it as politically motivated. That is their overriding concern, more so than any of the content of the charges," he said in part, adding that "they think very specifically here that this is an attempt to stop Donald Trump's 2024 campaign."
Curiously, the poll's wording did not refer to what the Biden administration's DOJ is doing as a matter of "undermining democracy." A tweet from CBS News Poll did, however, use "threat to democracy" phrasing when it comes to the view of some Democrats with regards to the indictment.
The poll did, however, ask about respondents' concerns with the indictment and whether it concerned them more that "Trump tried to overturn a presidential election" or that the charges "are politically motivated." Respondents were evenly split, with 38 percent each saying those options concerned them more. Twenty-four percent said "both."
The partisan breakdown is interesting, though, considering that 68 percent of Democrats chose the option of Trump and the 2020 election, while 71 percent of Republicans chose the political motivation of the charges, showing perhaps a more unified front among Republicans. Further, 25 percent of Democrats are still concerned about both. Independents are also slightly more concerned about politically motivated charges, at 41 percent, compared to the 38 percent of Independents who are more concerned about Trump and the election.
For Reps, there is overwhelming concern about the perceived politics, just as we saw when we asked about the charges & politics after the classified documents indictment. pic.twitter.com/cSBZ4cxTuy
— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) August 6, 2023
Pollster Kabir Khanna tweeted out what group is worth watching, the 18 percent who believe that Biden legitimately won the 2020 election but also that Trump didn't act illegally. They're also concerned about the political natures of the charges, but aren't too thrilled about Trump's involvement, in that they view it as undermining democracy. They also narrowly voted for Trump.
As the write-up notes, however, those in this group "aren't paying as much attention to the events." It might take some time before these 18 percent being the group to watch amounts to anything.
Group to watch: 18% saying Biden legitimate '20 winner AND Trump didn't act illegally
— Kabir Khanna (@kabir_here) August 6, 2023
Concerned charges are political, but would consider it undermining democracy if Trump involved in overturn effort
Voted narrowly for Trump, and are not yet paying close attention to indictment https://t.co/jcmfVKTVmW
The poll was conducted August 2-4, 2023, with Trump's arraignment taking place right in the middle. The poll surveyed 2,145 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percent. The margin of error for Republican respondents was at plus or minus 5.6 percent.
It's worth pointing out that various other polls have also found that Americans believe that the other charges brought against Trump have been politicized. Going off of the results from the CBS poll, however, it would seem more people still need to wake up to the alarming nature of these indictments and the role they play in what's "undermining democracy."
In his Monday column, Kurt Schlichter warned readers that the Biden administration could engage in dirty tricks if Trump, or any other Republican nominee, were to win the presidency.
"Biden and those who support his stumbling efforts to turn America into Venezuela, except with more Venezuelans thanks to his erasure of our border, see us as morally incapable and morally unworthy of participating in our own governance. We are illegitimate, and therefore so are the electoral results of our participation in civic life," his column mentions in part.
Those undermining democracy, of course, involve the Biden administration, Kurt mentioned, especially given that the president has "been ignoring the law for four years to impose things he cannot get passed via the Constitution." He also spoke to how Congress, especially one under Democratic-control, may not fortify the results of the next election, reminding us how Democrats have been excused or even treated as heroes for objecting to the results for the 2000, 2004, and 2017 elections:
And then there will be the DC drama. You’ll see House objections to the vote that will go nowhere under McCarthy, but the action will be across the Rotunda. The Democrats own the Senate, so watch Kamala Harris show up to do what Mike Pence – before he became an insufferably prissy collaborator with the narrative over the last few weeks – properly refused to do and try to interfere with the Electoral College count. Do not put it past the Democrat majority to refuse to certify a Donald Trump win in favor of their guy who the Democrats will have, by then, refused to impeach and remove despite a tsunami of evidence of his outright bribery. Then watch them push slates of fake electors, who are once again (as they were in 2000, 2004, and 2016) not just A-OK but heroic defenders of Our Democracy. Yeah, the same kind of people currently being framed by Democrats when they are Republicans will be celebrated when they are Democrats.
When it comes to the election interference that Biden's DOJ is engaging in, it's not just Republican voters who are concerned. There's real-life examples of Democratic voters who are also troubled, including Alan Dershowitz, an attorney and law professor who has defended Trump, and who also happens to be a Democratic voter. It's banana republic-level politics, as Dershowitz, and others, have reminded.
Dershowitz was rather vocal in raising key points against the indictment when it was first handed down. While speaking with Newsmax's Greta Van Sustern last Tuesday, he reminded how he's voted against Trump before, and that he doesn't want the DOJ telling him he cannot. "I want to vote against Donald Trump and I don't want the prosecutor to deny me that right," Dershowitz declared.
He doubled down on such themes when speaking to Newsmax once more on Saturday. "As an anti-Trump voter, somebody who voted against him twice and intends to vote against him for the third time, and as a civil libertarian, and a liberal, and a Democrat, I am very dissatisfied with the way this prosecution has gone," Dershowitz said. "As a liberal Democrat, I'm not satisfied that justice will be done in this case in the District of Columbia in front of this judge."
