What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending April 21, 2018

First, it was porn star Stormy Daniels. Now it’s former FBI Director James Comey who’s firing away publicly at President Trump. But Daniels and Comey aren’t faring too well from a public opinion standpoint, while the president’s job approval ratings remain at or near the 50% mark.

Comey’s new book and related media interviews don’t seem to be winning any converts. Most voters say they’re unlikely to read “A Higher Loyalty,” perhaps in part because they’re closely divided over whether Comey’s telling the truth or just taking a political shot at the president. 

The fired FBI director charged in a TV interview last weekend that Trump is “morally unfit” to be president, and voters agree that Trump and disgraced former President Bill Clinton are two of a kind as far as morality is concerned.

But 41% also now agree with Trump’s decision to fire Comey, up five points from last May shortly after he was terminated as FBI director. Forty-five percent (45%) disagree with the firing of Comey, down from 51%. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure.

The Justice Department this past week has reportedly recommended criminal charges against Andrew McCabe, Comey’s number two man at the FBI, for lying to investigators about leaking to the media. Sixty-six percent (66%) of Republicans – and 50% of all voters – believe senior federal law enforcement officials at the FBI and Justice Department broke the law in an effort to prevent Trump from winning the presidency in 2016.

Comey is a key witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe of the Trump campaign. The latest Rasmussen Minute reviews what voters think of the Mueller operation these days.

As for Daniels who says she had a sexual relationship with Trump 12 years ago, most voters don’t attach much importance to her claims now that he is president of the United States. 

Comey incorrectly notes in his new book that polls in October 2016 showed Hillary Clinton was most likely to win the presidency. Not all polls. Rasmussen Reports and two others showed that it was a close race, and they were the ones who proved to be right on Election Day.

The same critics who called Rasmussen Reports “outliers” during the 2016 presidential campaign for showing a neck-and-neck race are at it again because our daily Presidential Tracking Poll has Trump performing better than many other pollsters do. But Trump defeated Clinton in 2016 in perhaps the greatest electoral upset in U.S. history, and our polling nailed the exact margin between the two candidates.

Now that Gallup has quit the field, Rasmussen Reports is the only nationally recognized public opinion firm that still tracks President Trump's job approval ratings on a daily basis. If your organization is interested in a weekly or longer sponsorship of Rasmussen Reports' Daily Presidential Tracking Poll,  please send e-mail to beth@rasmussenreports.com.

Voters see a more divided America since Trump was elected president, but they’re closely divided over who divides us more – the president or his opponents.

Still, even with Republicans now in charge of the White House and both chambers of Congress, most GOP voters feel they don’t have a voice in Washington, D.C. Democrats are happier with the representation they’ve got.

Democrats continue to hold the lead on the Rasmussen Reports Generic Congressional Ballot. 

Forty percent (40%) of all voters say the country is headed in the right direction.

Fewer voters now see politics as a factor in judicial decisions, but Democrats are much more convinced of that than others are.

As students across the country sit down for school-wide standardized testing in the weeks to come, most Americans with school-age children continue to think there’s too much emphasis on these tests and their outcomes.

Half of parents don’t even see a need for standardized testing in the schools. 

In other surveys last week:

-- Americans hold a solidly favorable opinion of former first lady Barbara Bush who died earlier this week, and most think she set a good example for others to follow. 

-- Americans were closing in on Tuesday's Tax Day deadline at a pace comparable to the last couple years, with one-in-10 waiting to the last minute. 

-- Nearly half of Americans hired a professional to help them meet Tuesday's tax deadline, and the number of those who filed electronically continues to rise.

Visit the Rasmussen Reports home page for the latest current polling coverage of events in the news. The page is updated several times each day.

Remember, if it's in the news, it's in our polls.