(NewsNation) — Close to half of Americans believe the federal charges brought against former President Donald Trump are serious and believe he should be convicted.
New polling from YouGov surveyed American adults regarding the three indictments Trump is currently facing. Trump is facing charges for falsifying business records in the state of New York as well two federal indictments. One federal indictment deals with classified documents Trump kept and stored at his Mar-a-Lago home and the other focuses on efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
The federal charges were more likely to be seen as serious, with 48% saying the election case is serious. That percentage dropped to 44% for the documents case, while only 27% thought the New York case was serious.
When it came to whether people thought Trump should be convicted, 47% thought he should be convicted in the election case, 46% in the documents case and 39% in the New York case. When broken down by party. however, just 13% of Republicans thought Trump should be convicted in the federal cases and 10% think he deserves a conviction in the New York case.
Nearly half of American adults also said they believed the investigations were conducted fairly. Among those surveyed, 47% said the federal investigations were conducted fairly and 46% said the New York investigation was.
Trump has repeatedly said the indictments were political in nature and has accused the Biden administration of unfairly targeting him. While other Republican primary candidates have varied in their responses to the cases, several have vowed to end the “weaponization” of the Justice Department.
How seriously people viewed the cases against Trump was significantly influenced by political beliefs. Democrats and independents were more likely to view the cases seriously than Republicans.
Democrats were also much more likely to view the investigations as fair, with 81% of Democrats saying both federal cases were investigated fairly and 79% saying the New York investigation was fair. For independents, 40% viewed the cases as fair.
Among Republicans, however, just 14% saw the election interference and New York investigations as fair, with 15% saying the documents investigation was conducted fairly.
Trump has used the indictments to rally his supporters and fundraise for his campaign, leading the race for the 2024 GOP nomination by a significant margin. But the poll results show that what resonates with Republican primary voters may not do as well when it comes to winning over independents and swing voters.
In NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ polling, 49% of those surveyed said they would consider a third-party candidate if 2024 was a rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden.
YouGov didn’t ask respondents how they would vote in the 2024 election, but they did find that nearly half of voters thought the indictments would have a negative effect on Trump’s political career.
In addition to the three cases he is currently involved in, there is a possibility Trump will face a fourth indictment regarding election interference in Georgia.