Three-quarters of Republicans believe President Trump’s claims he was wiretapped at Trump Tower during the presidential election, a poll released Wednesday shows.
Seventy-four percent of GOP voters agree it is “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that Trump and his aides were monitored at the Fifth Avenue skyscraper, but only 21 percent of Democrats agreed, the CBS News poll said.
Trump made the allegation that former President Obama authorized the wiretapping in a tweet on March 4, without offering any proof.
FBI Director James Comey testified at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on March 20 and said his agency is investigating Russian involvement in the election but said he has “no information” to back up Trump’s claim.
Americans are also deeply divided by party over whether Russian interfered in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump advisers colluded with Kremlin officials, the survey shows.
While 82 percent of Democrats believe it’s “necessary” for the FBI to investigate any links between Trump and Moscow, only 35 percent of Republicans do.
Asked about Russian meddling in the election, 16 percent of Democrats said it didn’t happen as opposed to 64 percent of Republicans. But a whopping 67 percent of Democrats who believe the Russians interfered say they did so to help Trump, but only 13 percent of Republicans think so.
Still, there was relative partisan agreement on whether Russia tampered but not to aid Trump — with 7 percent of Democrats and 13 percent of Republicans agreeing, the poll shows.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia tampered with the election, with Russian President Vladimir Putin being personally involved.
The meddling and possible collusion between Trump associates and Russian agents is also being investigated by intelligence committees in the House and Senate.
Overall, the poll shows, 40 percent of respondents “approve” of the job Trump is doing — roughly the same it had been since he took office in January — compared to 52 percent who “disapprove.”
Broken down by party, only 12 percent of Democrats “approve” of how Trump’s handling the job, while 84 percent of Republicans give him a thumbs up.
On the GOP-backed plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare that fell apart in the House last week, 49 percent of those surveyed said it failed because it “just wasn’t popular” — 41 percent of Republicans and 56 percent of Democrats agreed.
CBS News conducted the poll of 1,088 adults nationwide between March 25 and 28 by telephone. It has a 4 percentage-point margin of error.