As the nation reels from angry protests and deadly violence against police officers, voters are more pessimistic than ever about the state of race relations in this country since the election of its first black president.
Voters are more likely to watch some of this week’s Republican National Convention where Donald Trump is expected to be nominated than next week’s Democratic National Convention where Hillary Clinton is likely to triumph.
Voters tend to think House Speaker Paul Ryan is just making a political move with his call to block presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton from receiving intelligence briefings following the FBI's conclusion that she was “extremely careless” with classified information during her time as secretary of State. But voters trust her Republican rival Donald Trump slightly more when it comes to handling the nation's secrets.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 49% of Likely U.S. Voters believe it is more likely Ryan is playing politics rather than genuinely trying to protect the government’s secrets. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree and think it's more likely Ryan is honestly looking out for national security. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 14 and 17, 2016 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Voters insist that vice presidential nominees are important to their vote, but most say Donald Trump’s choice of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as a running mate will not affect how they vote in the fall.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg raised eyebrows and even drew fire from her friends at the New York Times for her recent public criticism of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Voters strongly agree that it’s bad for the high court when the justices make public political statements.
Americans strongly believe the media is emphasizing shootings by police officers involving black suspects over ones in which whites are shot and that that media coverage is prompting attacks on police.
Democratic voters are far more confident than Republicans that their representatives in Congress will be an asset to their presidential nominee this November.
While police killings are escalating in America, voters are less convinced that there is an actual war on those in blue, although most still blame politicians who are critical of the police for making their jobs more dangerous. But blacks and whites sharply disagree on both questions.
Democrats are much more confident than Republicans are that their presidential nominee will help their congressional candidates win in November.
Most voters have difficulty swallowing President Obama's superlatives for Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail last week and now rate her and Donald Trump equally when it comes to their preparedness for the White House.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton still run neck-and-neck with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson added to the ballot.
An effort by two Democrats on the Federal Election Commission to punish Fox News for including additional – but not all - candidates in its first Republican presidential debate failed in a split vote last week. Most voters agree that it’s not up to the government to ensure that the news media treats all candidates equally.
Most voters feel government and big business are a deadly combination.
Most voters disagree with FBI Director James Comey’s decision not to seek a criminal indictment of Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump has vowed to renegotiate NAFTA and other international free trade deals if elected president, saying they are costing U.S. jobs and killing the economy. Supporters say the trade deals lower prices for American consumers. Voters are not big fans of free trade deals like NAFTA but also strongly believe that the politicians negotiating those deals don’t care what they think anyway.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren joined Hillary Clinton on the presidential campaign trail earlier this week, fueling speculation of an all-woman national ticket. But most voters - including Democrats and women - say a vice presidential nomination for Warren wouldn't help Clinton's chances for the White House.
The final report released this week by the special congressional committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, hasn’t significantly changed voters’ opinions about how the incident will impact Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House. Still, nearly half of voters believe the then-secretary of State lied to the victims’ families about the nature of the attack.
A tie vote in the U.S. Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court ruling that halted President Obama’s plan to exempt millions of illegal immigrants from deportation. Most voters continue to oppose that plan as they have from the start and believe instead that the U.S. government needs to more aggressively deport those who are here illegally.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders recently announced that he will vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump but stopped short of endorsing his former Democratic primary rival. A sizable number of Democrats say they’d vote for Sanders for president if they still had that option, but most voters, regardless of political party, say his announcement will have little impact on how they vote this fall.
Despite the media panic and market swings that have resulted, Americans still aren’t sweating Great Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and are not particularly worried that the “Brexit” will hurt them in the pocketbook.
